


Harry Potter and the Man of Iron 2

by Madz616



Series: Harry Potter and the Man of Iron [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: BAMF Harry Potter, BAMF Tony Stark, Because Tony Stark, Canon Divergence - Iron Man 1, Canon Divergence - Iron Man 2, Canon Divergence - Post-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Fluff, Love, M/M, Master of Death Harry Potter, Merchant of Death Tony Stark, Plot of Iron Man 2, Sequel, Tony Stark Has A Heart, but also BAMF, canon angst, it's harry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-20
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-11-26 05:40:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18176558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madz616/pseuds/Madz616
Summary: Sequel.The one where Harry and Tony are together and in love, and the events of the second Iron Man movie mostly happen anyway.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel. I'd recommend reading Harry Potter and the Man of Iron 1 before delving into this one, but that is as always your choice. 
> 
> I really like this pairing, so I couldn't just leave the story at the end of Iron Man 1. The universe has too much potential, and Harry and Tony are just so cute and fluffy together. 
> 
> Per the first story, my writing style tends to carry an air of 'Mary Sue' through the characters in regards to their strengths. However, I believe I've managed to stay in line with the wider Marvel universe.
> 
> The ultimate aim is to take this through the Avengers, however fair warning - I began writing Iron Man 1 in 2015, finished in early 2018, began Iron Man 2 at around the same time before finishing this just now. Avengers will likely be a way off. 
> 
> This mostly follows the second Iron Man movie, in that most of the major plot events of the movie are included with a little bit of deviation here and there. 
> 
> Some swearing, though not excessive I hope, and allusions to / mentions of sex, however nothing graphic. Not beta read, so all mistakes are my own. 
> 
> So again, I hope you enjoy this retelling of Iron Man 2 with a pinch of magic.

Tony was dying. Well, sort of.

Actually he was in a constant state of almost dying due to Harry, a super awesome magic person who had some kind of odd deal with Death that had extended to his boyfriend.

It sounded even weirder when he said it out loud.

Basically, the arc reactor was going wrong in a big way and Tony was being poisoned by the very thing that kept him alive. And yes, he did see the irony of the situation.

Somewhat embarrassingly, it had actually been Harry that was the first one to notice something was going wrong with the reactor. This was embarrassing because Harry freely admitted he had no idea how the reactor worked, but had still picked on the change in energy signature before Tony or even JARVIS. Really, if there was anything Tony should be better at than Harry, it should be the technologically complicated arc reactor.

So to recap the last few months, Tony had invented a whole bunch of very helpful things that were helping humanity and making the SI Board very happy, Harry has started volunteering at a little local dojo teaching small boys and girl how to kick some serious ass, and the reactor was screwed.

There was always _something_.

“So you’re gonna jump out of a helicopter in your suit, even though it would be easier to just fly there, in your suit.” Harry was asking from Tony’s favourite work chair, feet up on a miraculously clear area of workbench, left hand twirling the Death Stick of Destiny (a trademarked name as far as Tony was concerned), and right hand carefully patting DUM-E who was actually making some kind of noise that weirdly resembled a dying cat.

Tony paused in his adjustment of the right boot of his suit, glancing over at Harry to double check that the wizard was, in fact, sassing him. “Really? That’s where you’ve taken issue? Not the dancing women or the stupid speech, but the method of transport to the event itself? And it’s an aeroplane, not a helicopter.”

Harry was grinning before he’d even reached the description of the speech. “Aeroplane. Of course, that’s so much better. The missing piece of the puzzle.” DUM-E gave a strange little chirrup as Harry scratched a joint in his arm like you would a dog.

Tony huffed, trying in vain to stop his mouth from tipping up in a smile. “Exactly. I am brilliant. And stop twirling that thing like a baton. You’ll take someone’s eye out. Or turn DUM-E into a real dog.”

Tony glanced up to see Harry looking at his precious first robotic child with a shrewd gaze. “A Labrador?”

“No! No, dogs! But, if it did happen, he would definitely be a Chow Chow.”

Harry grinned once more before leaning the chair back in a display of unlikely physics, closing his eyes. “What does Pepper think of your aeroplane?”

“You know Pepper thinks the whole Expo is pointlessly extravagant. I told her I was walking.” Tony dropped his screwdriver so You could feel useful. Butterfingers was still sulking in the corner after knocking over _another_ box of screws.

“Maybe you _should_ walk. That way you won’t have to use the suit at all.”

And once again, Harry had hit the proverbial nail on the head.

“Alright you got me. The reactor’s getting worse and the suit accelerates the process. There, I said it!” Tony had his hands in the air in exasperation, which gave Harry the perfect opportunity to silently appear from nowhere and wrap his arms around Tony’s ribs from behind, just under said reactor.

“You know that’s creepy, right?” Tony grouched. “Appearing in utter silence?”

“Yep. I had a Professor who did the same thing.” Harry sounded utterly unrepentant, his head tucked in between Tony’s shoulder blades.

Tony couldn’t help the gusty sigh he loosed, hand coming down to cover Harry’s. “It can’t be this damn difficult to find a replacement compound.” Harry hummed encouragingly. “I must be missing something.”

“You’ll figure it out. After the Expo with your terrible speech.”

Tony hadn’t know it was possible to roll your eyes fondly until right then.

 

 

 

Harry was currently feeling a bit useless.

In general, he was actually quite fulfilled. He’d forgotten how nice it was to teach people, especially kids. It was great to see kids under ten who would have a better chance of defending themselves than most adults.

He did feel useless when it came to Tony and the reactor however. All he could do was feel the reactor changing with no way to stop it, which was particularly frustrating. It was also a little disconcerting that Harry could detect the smallest changes in the advanced tech, though that at least had a plausible explanation.

It started with Stane – Harry had become a _touch_ fonder of the Elder Wand afterwards. He still hadn’t gone near the Resurrection Stone, which lived in its own little pocket dimension that Harry hoped to never open, and he didn’t really have much need for the Invisibility Cloak these days, so the Elder Wand was the only Hallow he had regular contact with. It was really hard to hate something that liked you so much. It was also really strange that a _wand_ could like someone, but that was a side issue.

Harry now tolerated the Death Stick even though he didn’t really need it all that much. It was his growing connection to it however, that lead Harry to his main discovery.

Harry’s magic was growing, and that was why he was now so sensitive to Tony and the reactor.

It was small, just enough to be noticed. His magic was just a little _more_.

Magicals were beings of magic, as in it saturated their very being. It was the reason Squibs were so pitied – to have a core but be unable to access it was unthinkable for your normal witch or wizard. Because magicals were so connected with their power, it effected their bodies. Wizards and Witches were hardier than your average human, able to withstand more. They were sometimes a little faster, sometimes a little stronger, all depending on their magical ability and affinity. Harry’s affinity, for example, lent towards Battle Magic – a handover from his upbringing.

Once you reached your magical maturity however, you stopped advancing. Harry’s magic should have been stable. His _body_ should have been stable.

Instead, his magic was a little more, his reflexes a little faster, his senses a little sharper. His ability to pinpoint the reactor within the house was scary accurate because it was just so easy to spread his magic out to find it.

It was concerning, and it was rubbing off a little on Tony too.

It was mostly noticeable when Tony was in the suit – Tony was just a little better at it than he really had any right to be. A bit stronger, a bit quicker.

Tony had noticed it, but they didn’t really talk about it. Maybe once Tony _stopped dying_.

Which despite the changes to his magic, Harry couldn’t do much about. Hence, useless.  

He was currently watching the opening of the Expo, listening as Tony sprouted cliché after cliché in a brightly gaudy show with the promised women and grandiose speech. Ron would have loved it.

When it ended, Harry expected Tony to show up within half an hour. Instead he got a call.

“I got Served. I’ve got to be in DC by tomorrow, so me and Happy are just gonna go straight there.”

Harry just agreed, telling Tony to watch his mouth and to try and not be an ass.

After he hung up, Harry tried to confide in JARVIS. “It’s all going to go terribly.”

“ _It’s as though you are psychic, Hadrian_.”

Sassy JARVIS was still the best.

 

 

 

When Tony had gotten home Harry had punched him in the arm and called him an arrogant dick. Which was deserved in all honestly – the Senate Committee had been a doozy but he had definitely made it worse which his unreserved bullshit.

Tony had experience with these things though – you had to get the story out there or things could happen without the population knowing. The government was _very_ good at that kind of thing.

So he acted as a complete ass and made it into a big media story, offering some semblance of protection.

Something interesting _had_ occurred though, while he was in DC.

They were lying on the floor in the ‘shop, on top of some strange futon thing that Harry had magicked up. Tony liked discussing private things in the ‘shop because it was one of the only places that he could guarantee wasn’t bugged, mostly because JARVIS was constantly watching, but also because Harry had beefed up the security so much that it was very likely impossible for ants to get in without permission.

“Some SHIELD guy was sniffing around in DC.” Tony began, hand moving through Harry’s hair where his head lay on his stomach. They had this perpendicular thing going that definitely would not have been possible on a normal sized futon. “He kept his distance, but he was definitely SHIELD because I recognise him from those active operative files.”

Yes, Tony had hacked SHIELD. Yes, Tony had memorised the faces of almost all their active operators in the US and also shared the images with Harry. No, he was not even slightly concerned. If they didn’t want him in there they would have a better firewall.

Though that wasn’t entirely fair, seeing as Tony hadn’t yet me a firewall that he and JARVIS couldn’t crack in under a week. Tony was a genius, as he kept reiterating. Also, SHIELD was easier because Howard was still recognised as a founding member and Tony had figured out his father’s passwords for most things by the age of 8.

“He kept looking at the reactor and he seemed pretty unsurprised by my terrible behaviour.”

Harry had his thinking face on. It was interesting to watch actually. His bright green eyes focused on the roof with laser intensity, his forehead crinkled ever so slightly into a little frown. “They must know something about the technology. Maybe they predicted the Palladium problem? Would Howard have kept plans in their database that they still had access to?”

Tony grinned. “Great mind thinks alike. JARVIS is sifting through now.”

Harry didn’t smile in return. “But that means they think you are dying and haven’t said anything or even tried to help. Knowing manipulative men, they’re probably going to wait until the last minute and swoop in with an answer so they look like the good guys.” Harry sounded just slightly bitter, likely from being poked and prodded in various directions by people of power since he was a child.

It was a good point though. A _very_ good point, in fact. “What assholes. We should definitely out asshole them in retaliation.”

Harry turned his head to face him. “That sounds like you already have a plan.”

Tony, who had in fact been struck by inspiration just in that second, slowly smiled. “Yeah. You know what? I do have a plan.”

“Great.” Harry agreed, turning back to the roof with a grin. “When it all goes wrong I can blame you then.”

Tony was surprised into loud laughter.

 

 

 

Stage one of the plan was pretty much the whole plan. Tony would simply pretend he was actually, properly dying. In the meantime he would keep trying to figure out a replacement core for the reactor.

Harry had gotten Tony to make a brief list of things he might do if he were dying. Half the things involved doing things with and to Harry that they could do later and so were immediately removed from the list. In the end, there was only three real things.

One, make Pepper CEO of Stark Industries. This would be their first layer of the scheme and they had agreed that Pepper should be in the know. It was actually quite difficult to simply hire a new CEO without input from the Board, so to make it all official like but still possible, Tony would simply make it so Pepper could represent him in all aspects of the business as required. Board meetings were a different story, but they didn’t happen too often.

The second thing on the list was to give Rhodey a suit. Tony had actually set aside the Mark II for Rhodes, knowing that appearing to gift one to the army would get them to back off a little, at least for a while. What they wouldn’t know, Tony explained, was that he had very carefully written code and implanted it into the suits basic AI system that would ensure the suit would only function with the correct pilot, being Rhodey. The army wouldn’t even be able to power the suit up without Rhodey in it.

That point would be a little more challenging to deal with without arousing suspicion.

The last thing was less of a particular thing and more of an ‘I would definitely do something crazy and unnecessary’. They were going to have to wing that one, but Harry had faith that the moment would present itself.

Harry had convinced Tony that they should get started right away. “The sooner we act, the more control we’ll have.”

So operation ‘make Pepper the boss’ started right up.

It didn’t really start well.

“What the hell was that, Tony?” Tony had asked Pepper to come by and it seemed she’d taken that as an invitation to vent her frustrations.

Harry watched in interest as Tony tried to cut in, flustered in the face of the red-headed woman’s wrath. “I don’t actually know what you’re talking about?” This was absolutely the wrong thing to say.

“You don’t know? What was all of that in DC? Were you trying to come across as a giant jerk? Because that’s what it looked like!”

Tony looked a bit panicked, an expression he’d seen (and worn) many times during his Hogwarts years when Hermione became annoyed with someone. His favourite was still the terror on Malfoy’s face after Hermione had threatened to curse him in fourth year – The blonde had tread carefully around Hermione since the slapping incident the year before.

“Pepper, I can definitely explain! I totally can!” Tony looked towards Harry, which of course brought Pepper’s attention to him. Luckily, Harry hadn’t been there and couldn’t be blamed which was a relief. Pepper was a little terrifying. “Hi Pepper. It’s not that bad, is it?”

Pepper released a gust of breath, blowing her fringe up away from her forehead. “While it pains me to admit it, it has been much worse before.” She looked back towards Tony, eyes narrowed now in suspicion. “Which is strange in itself actually. Why did you ask me to come by? This doesn’t even rate in the top 10 of your PR disasters.”

“You’re right, that’s not why I called you here at all.” Tony foundered for a moment before, “Would you like a seat?” It was slightly adorable that Tony fell back onto his manners when he didn’t quite know where to start.

Pepper was still frowning in an ‘I do not like where this is going’ kind of way. “It sounds like I’ll actually need a martini, but we can get to that later.”

Pepper sat primly, focused entirely on Tony. It seemed to put the genius off even further, as his hands started fluttering by his sides as though he wanted by pick something up to pull apart and put back together. After a few seconds of Pepper sitting patiently Tony finally managed to get out something. “Pepper, I want you to be the CEO of Stark Industries.”

Harry had forgotten that Tony lost all tact when he was a little nervous.

 

 

 

After his false start, Tony managed to explain the situation to Pepper to her and Harry’s satisfaction.

“SHIELD, as in that Coulson guy, right?” Pepper asked, and Tony once more did a mental happy dance as he was reminded that he had totally picked super badass spy as his first answer in relation to the agent.

“Exactly.” Harry answered, now sitting next to Pepper with his teacher face on. Tony could see why the kids all loved him, with the way he looked at whoever was speaking as they were of the utmost importance no matter the topic. His eyes were bright and focused and the little crinkle on his forehead gave away his concentration and—well, maybe Tony was a little biased.

“And they think Tony is dying, but aren’t helping him until they feel the time is right.”

Tony refocused with difficulty and nodded along. “Yep.”

They had told a small white lie at that point of the story – SHIELD thought Tony was dying but he wasn’t because he had already fixed the problem with the arc reactor that they thought he had. It was a little easier to take then ‘maybe immortal’.

“And you want me to take over your responsibilities as head of SI so it looks like you _are_ dying, although the board will think I’m just acting on your behalf.” Neither Harry nor Tony had missed the little glow of pride and happiness that Pepper had emitted when Tony had said she was the only person in the world he trusted besides Harry to run SI, and she had a lot more business sense than Harry did.

“You got it. Do you accept?” The nerves came back for a brief second as Tony watched Pepper sit a little straighter.

“I would be honoured to run SI for you.”

Step one complete.

Of course, everything got harder after that.

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See first Chapter for Notes. 
> 
> Second chapter!  
> So it wasn't until I went back to fact check something for this one that I realised I've messed with the locations a little. Hopefully that doesn't bother anyone much (if you notice at all). 
> 
> Still sticking with major events from the movie, but I'm about to add in something of my own. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Harry had insisted that he needed to go in to SI with Tony the next day. Tony, now well used to Harry needing to do unusual things because his magic thought it was a good idea, simply agreed.

So Harry stood to the side like an intimidating statue while Tony made Happy box with him as they waited for Pepper with the paperwork.

“Harry is pretending to be a bodyguard?” Happy asked, feinting left before Tony blocked his right hook. “I’d buy that.”

If fact, Harry was dressed all in black and even with a t-shirt on, looked like a fairly deadly bodyguard. His eyes were sharp and watchful, darting around the room like he expected an attack at any second. His body, though relaxed, had an undeniable air of readiness like a coiled viper. It was utterly badass and totally hot.

Harry sometimes found it difficult to relax in new places, especially when everything was so close to going pear shaped. It was particularly evident to Tony that Harry’s body language screamed ‘touch me and I will end you’. They had decided to use that to their advantage – Harry was Tony’s new personal bodyguard due to an unfortunate increase in threats against Tony’s life, or so the story would go if they were asked.

“That’s the idea.” Tony got a hit in to Happy’s shoulder much to the other man’s annoyance.

Pepper walked in then, a smile on her face. She looked so happy and Tony wondered why he had never done this before – He hated the paperwork that came with running SI.

“The notary’s here! Can you please come sign the transfer paperwork?” Pepper asked, sitting down on the chairs in front of Harry without saying hello, as if Harry was any other bodyguard. They had let her in in the story that morning and Pepper was actually a damn good actor, which was why she was so good at dealing with the press.

“Where? I don’t see anyone. I can have a bit more Happy time.” And just to be a bit of an ass, Tony countered Happy’s next punch with a gentle tap to the face. Happy looked so shocked that Tony had to hide a grin.

“What the hell was that?” He sounded so affronted, and maybe just a little embarrassed that Tony had gotten past his defence. The man was such a big softy.

“It’s called mixed martial arts. It’s been around for like, three weeks.” Tony heard Harry huff in amusement from his spot against the wall.

Happy was still frowning, refusing to take the bait as he tried to regain some dignity. “It’s called dirty boxing, there’s nothing new about it.”

“All right, put them up, come on.” Tony offered, prepared to give the guy a free hit but Happy seemed distracted by something over his shoulder.

Tony turned around to see an attractive looking woman with dark red hair walk in. She was slim and pale, with a gait that was all grace like a dancer. Tony instantly got a prickle up his neck warning him of approaching danger.

The way Tony was facing gave him the perfect view to see Harry get his first look at the woman’s face.

Harry’s face flashed briefly with recognition before he froze utterly still, eyes dark and unhappy as he gazed upon the new woman. He looked so much like a stalking big cat that Tony actually forgot to breathe for a second. The wizard looked dangerous.

Tony decided right then he may need to reevaluate his response to fear, because the deadly being in the corner triggered a flash of heat through his body rather than the more appropriate flight or fight response.

“I promise this is the only time I will ask you to sign over your company.” Pepper was saying, oblivious to the small drama occurring.

The woman, who until that point had been looking at the two men in the ring, glanced over at Pepper and Harry. The change was so quick it was insane – Harry managed to relax his stance and face in less than the second it took for the woman to look over at him, once again back to alert but unconcerned bodyguard. If Tony hadn’t been watching he might not have believed it.

“I need you to initial each box.” The woman was saying to Pepper, paperwork open between them. She had completely disregarded Harry. Her mistake.

She was totally a SHIELD plant. But why had Harry recognised her but not Tony? He tried to focus more carefully on her face, knowing that changes to her hair would completely change her look, but Happy chose that moment to retaliate by hitting him in the back of the head.

Happy totally deserved the kick to the chest padding that Tony gave him.

“That’s it, I’m done.” He said, turning back once more to the woman. She did look familiar. “What’s your name lady?”

The answer was smooth and natural. “Rushman. Natalie Rushman.”

He paused a half second, considering. “Front and center. Come into the church.” He said gesturing to the ring, prepared to play up his supposed eccentricity. It would also be interesting to see how controlled she was. No slip ups in the persona would be very difficult in a physical situation.

Pepper looked honestly appalled for half a second before her shoulders stiffened as she worked out something else was going on. She went with it though, and Tony kinda loved her for it. “No. You’re seriously not gonna ask…”

Tony sometimes lost track of his mouth while his brain raced ahead. He heard more than thought the words coming out of him mouth. “If it pleases the court, which it does.”

The woman was good, acting like she would be happy to do it to please here rich, crazy boss. She turned to Pepper reassuringly. “It’s no problem.”

“I’m sorry,” Pepper offered. “He’s very eccentric.”

Natalie stepped forward and Pepper swung a quick glance towards Harry who just subtly shook his head. _Go with it_.

Tony turned to Happy, who looked curious but happy enough to go with whatever Tony wanted. That was why Tony liked him, besides his general niceness and his good driving and on point observation skills. “Can you give her a lesson?”

“No problem.” Happy shrugged and Natalie entered the ring.

She kept eye contact with Tony, who was honestly just trying to place her but obviously came across as interested in her. Tony kept the pretense going for an extra second but still couldn’t quite get it. She was pretty, with lovely green eyes that didn’t hold a candle to Harry’s. She was the perfect plant.

“Pepper,” he asked as he sat down next to her. “Who is she?”

“She’s from legal. And she is potentially a very expensive sexual harassment lawsuit if you keep ogling her like that.” Pepper answered like the gem she was, letting him know what she knew with a deflection thrown in for good measure.

Tony could see SHIELD’s plan. They had planted a pretty girl in legal and then gotten her in front of Tony. It was very similar to how Tony had hired Pepper. It was a good plan, but Tony was ahead of the game this time.

While the woman was distracted with Happy, Tony cut a quick glance at Harry and raised his eyebrow. _Keep her close_ , Harry mouthed and Tony knew that the woman was big trouble.

“I need a new assistant, Boss.” Tony said, turning back to Pepper. The red head looked away from Harry, obviously having watched their by play. She had a faint frown of worry between her brows.

“Yes, and I’ve got three potential candidates. They’re lined up to meet you.” Pepper replied, playing haughty new CEO that didn’t have time for Tony’s bullshit. She was watching though, sharp and observant for Tony’s cues.

“I don’t have time to meet. I need someone now. I feel like it’s her.”

“No, it’s not.”

Tony smirked a little before looking back to Natalie. “How do I spell your name, Natalie?”

“What, are you gonna google her now?”

“I thought I was ogling her.” Tony glanced at Harry to see his lips twitch up in a fleeting smile.

His basic search was interesting. They’d made her perfect for an eccentric billionaire genius with impulse control issues while also making sure she possessed the qualification to appear capable but not overqualified. A fine line to walk that spoke of practice.

Tony made a mental note to have JARVIS go through the history of every SI employee properly.

He and Pepper snipped for another minute, Natalie listening as her plan seeming went perfectly. Then Happy took a swing at her while she wasn’t looking.

Happy was instantly on his rear.

“That’s what I’m talking about.” Tony said, mostly to himself. The woman had very much just given herself away but played it off well, a touch shy and awkward as she came over to deal with the forgotten paperwork. Pepper vacated her seat, quickly moving over to the ring to fuss over Happy.

The woman held his gaze as she asked for his fingerprint. She was interesting and that was what made her dangerous. If Tony hadn’t known better he would have fallen easily into her little web of lies.

Tony gave the woman his fingerprint before she asked with a perfectly straight face, “Will that be all, Mr Stark?” as though she were Pepper Potts the second.

“No.” Tony went for and Pepper cut in perfectly. “Yes, that will be all, Ms Rushman. Thank you very much.”

As soon as she’d taken two steps out the door, Happy leant forward to put his hands on his knees, winded and now willing to show it. “Ow. That was so uncalled for.” Pepper went over to the man again, fussing in a sweet ‘those two are totally gonna get together’ kind of way.

Tony instead turned to Harry to find out who the hell Natalie was, but the wizard once again shook his head.

Right. Home first.

 

 

 

Harry was surprised Tony had lasted till they got home and into the workshop. The man had been twitching since they’d left SI, obviously frustrated by not being able to place the woman.

Harry probably could have told him in the car but the entire encounter had left him paranoid. He couldn’t be sure that the Black Widow had not already infiltrated every aspect of their lives outside the house.

Instead of waiting for Tony to voice the question once they were safely in the ‘shop, Harry just gave him a hint. Tony would feel a little better if he figured out some of it himself.

“She was blonde in the photo, and her face was a little fuller. I think her eyes were blue as well.”

It was interesting to watch Tony got through his mental databank of images, even if it only lasted about three seconds.

“The Black Widow!?” The exclamation was followed by a rather colourful string of swear words. It was understandable – Natasha Romanoff was one of SHIELD’s best agents and an ex-assassin to boot. The fact that they’d assigned her to Tony showed just how seriously they were taking the whole situation. SHIELD obviously considered Tony to be a significant threat, and that was without knowing anything about Harry. They would have to tread lightly, but a spider that you could see was far safer than one you couldn’t.

He left Tony to it, knowing he’d want to straighten his thoughts while tinkering.

Harry went to their couch, flopping down gracelessly. He’d become drowsy on the way home – a side effect of calling so much magic to the surface but not using it. Magic suppression and adrenaline led to tired magic users no matter who you were. Harry usually tried to minimise such reactions but Romanoff had surprised him, bringing his flight or much stronger fight reaction forward.

Tony was ranting to JARVIS now, making the AI retrieve the Widow’s files while simultaneously running in depth background checks on SI staff. He was obviously annoyed with himself for not recognising the woman and was now a touch paranoid that his business had been infiltrated in other ways.

Harry dozed for a little while, comfortable and content to let Tony work around him. He’d gotten used to the noises of the ‘shop and his magic stayed calm when Tony was in the same room.

Some unknown time later Harry felt gentle, work worn fingers run down his nose. He opened his eyes to find Tony’s face in front of him. The engineer’s eyes were big and bright and just a touch crazy, the way they got when Tony really got going during an inventing binge. He had grease on his forehead and his hair was wild and spikey. He looked damn adorable.

It was moments like this that reminded him how much he loved Tony Stark. His magic sang in agreement.

“What is it?” Harry asked, voice rough with sleep.

Tony smiled gently. “Just wanted some inspiration.”

Harry felt his forehead crinkle into a small frown. “That was unusually sappy.”

Tony’s smile morphed into a grin but he didn’t speak. His body was relaxed though, so everything was probably fine.

Harry, now suspicious, reached forward to lay a hand over the reactor through Tony’s t-shirt. The reactor pulsed warmly against his skin, but the undercurrent of _wrongness_ was still there. It throbbed with Tony’s heartbeat, twisting away from Harry’s magic as though it knew how much it was despised. Energy interaction was such a strange thing – it was hard to remember that the reactor was not sentient like Harry’s magic almost was.

Harry felt his frown deepen. “I don’t like it.” He murmured, not really paying too much attention.

“Hmm?” Tony prompted, running his fingers over his mostly faded scar. It tickled a little but wasn’t unwelcome. Tony was to only person he’d actually _let_ touch his scar.

“The core. Can’t you just make an entirely new one? So it lasts a year like this one did?” Harry didn’t really know how the reactor worked. Maybe it was cumulative? Surely Tony would have fixed it if he could just replace the whole thing?

Thoughts were hard when half asleep, Harry decided.

It seemed like Tony had stopped listening halfway through Harry’s question, fingers stilling against his skin.

Harry looked up from the reactor to see that Tony’s face had slackened, looking slightly shocked. “An entirely new…?” he trailed off, eyes loosing focus as inspiration obviously struck him.

Harry drew his hand back, tucking it back underneath his body for warmth. “Glad I could help.” Harry mumbled, closing his eyes once more. There had been a slight chance that Tony had wanted to have some fun, which Harry was always up for, but the genius had become side tracked once more.

They could have their fun later, maybe in the shower.

Tony was already up and gone, yelling at JARVIS with excitement once more.

 

 

 

Tony couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of it himself.

None of the existing compounds he or JARVIS could come up with were suitable, so why not _make an entirely new element_.

Harry was a genius!

Granted, that probably wasn’t anywhere near what the wizard had meant, but Harry tended to be a little less coherent when Tony woke him from his naps gently like that. But of course, that was why he did it – Harry was so cuddly and warm when just awake and Tony always felt his chest grow warm in response when he realised that the super powerful wizard trusted Tony enough to let him get that close without frying him.

While Harry slept, Tony and JARVIS theoretically invented two new viable elements, neither of which could replace the palladium in the reactor. But they were getting closer, and one of the elements was a new metalloid that could be useful in some of the suit alloys.

Tony finally felt as though this was the correct path and that the reactor could be fixed.

A relief, as the palladium poisoning was starting to take a physical toll. Tony _ached_ after long days, his joints stiff and uncomfortable due to the constant regeneration of his cells.

Over the last few days in particular, Tony had caught Harry looking at him with a small furrow of unhappiness on his forehead when he thought Tony wasn’t paying attention. Tony had figured that Harry knew something was more wrong than just the reactor, but was willing to wait for answers.

Harry was a curious creature like that. Sometimes he pushed and _pushed_ until something snapped because he was incapable of letting go without a fight. Other times he watched and waited with undeniable patience as though he knew that the answers would naturally reveal themselves. Both methods were frighteningly effective.

Harry had chosen the watch and wait method this time around which Tony appreciated. It meant Tony had a little more time to find the right atomic structure for his new element without having to tell Harry he might have a solution.

Tony couldn’t bear to tell Harry he could fix the reactor then find that he actually couldn’t.

Harry woke in the afternoon and drifted upstairs for food, kissing Tony on the way past.

Tony used the opportunity to rearrange the ‘shop, setting out the beginning of a miniature hadron collider for his element creation. While he puttered around, JARVIS theoretically invented three more elements – and it seemed like one of them would work.

Tony was just about the start welding some pieces together when Harry appeared very suddenly right out of thin air, right next to him.

It was immediately obvious something was very wrong.

Harry was pale and wide eyed, immediately finding Tony and slumping a little in obvious relief when he found the engineer exactly as he’d left. There was a thick sheet of some kind of paper (parchment?) gripped tightly in one hand and the Death Wand gripped just as tightly in the other. Harry looked seriously spooked.

“You’re okay.” Harry breathed, stepping forward into Tony’s open arms. Tony pulled the other man close, startled to find the wizard so shaken.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Tony struggled to think what could have possibly happened in the magical world that could possible affect _him_. Harry wasn’t sad or scared for himself, he was worried for Tony. It was very alarming. “Are your friends okay?”

Harry pulled back, eyes glancing around the room carefully. “JARVIS, you haven’t picked anyone up within the house? Or on the property?”

“ _No Hadrian. No one had entered the property besides Sir and yourself in the last 24 hours_.”

“Harry, what the hell is going on?” Tony tried again, now bewildered and worried.

The wizard looked at him carefully, lip pulled between his teeth in a concerning tell. His big green eyes were bright and focused. “Rabastan Lestrange escaped containment and they think he’s made his way back through to this world.”

Tony felt his stomach give an uneasy lurch. He knew that name, and that alone was enough to ring massive alarms. Tony had an idea as to the Death Eaters and their inner circle – The fact that he recognised the name Lestrange meant that the man was a very, _very_ dangerous person.

“The letter?” Tony asked and Hadrian handed it to him.

“From Hermione. I gave her a single strand of hair in case she ever needed to contact me urgently. A one time thing only.” Harry was still looking around carefully and his grip on his wand had yet to relax.

The letter, which was in fact written on parchment, was short and looked to have been written quickly. The date in the top corner was today.

“They think you’re still in England.” Tony murmured. The letter gave only the important details. The date, who had escaped, possible coordinates of the dimension opening used. What was also interesting was the closing paragraph.

 

_‘Rabastan Lestrange has been deemed by the Minister to be an unacceptable danger to the community, both magical and mundane. A warrant has been issued for his arrest with the use of deadly force sanctioned by the ICW._

_He’s all yours, Harry._

_Love, Hermione.’_

 

Tony knew Harry was going to go a deal with the threat. He knew that, because Tony would have done ( _had done_ ) the exact same thing. Tony also knew that Harry would want to go alone.

Like hell he was going to wait around in the States though.

“The Monaco Grand Prix starts tomorrow, so I could be nice and close to England just in case. It would probably be a good opportunity for me to do something crazy too.”

Harry’s answering smile when he understood where Tony was going could have outshone the sun.

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See first Chapter for Notes. 
> 
> Enjoy.

Harry waited until Tony was safely aboard his jet before allowing himself to relax a little.

Rabastan Lestrange.

Harry’s hand tightened compulsively around the Elder Wand whenever he thought of the man.

When the magical would had been in the beginning of the transfer, the fate of the remaining Death Eaters had been the focus of much discussion. Their crimes were too numerous to be detailed, too graphic to release to the general public. The ICW had stepped in and sentenced the remaining five inner circle members to death and 20 other lower tier members to life imprisonment with their magic bound.

Death row was different in the magical community when Dementors were not involved. A person was sentenced and a date of death set for exactly ten years after the day of sentencing. They were then kept in isolation until that day.

It may have seemed cruel to some, especially muggleborns who had greater experience with the mundane justice system, but the system was set for a reason – The magical world would not allow anyone to die as a martyr to incite future unrest, like had occurred time and time again until the end of the Arthurian Wars.

But now he was free, no doubt looking to wreak havoc amongst muggles who would struggle to defend themselves.

Of Voldemort’s Inner Circle, the Lestranges had been the most infamous for a reason – they seemed to genuinely enjoy death and destruction. Harry had the misfortune to meet Rabastan only once in battle, but the image stayed with him still, dark hair and dark eyes but bright with exhilaration as green curses flew from his wand one after the other.

While Harry wanted to run head long into the fray to remove the danger Lestrange posed ( _what if he found out about Tony? Would a metal suit be enough to stop a killing curse?_ ), he was no longer the hot-headed teenager he had been. Harry had learnt patience, and he had more tricks up his sleeve that the ex-Death Eater could possibly know about.

Tony would have two days in Monaco. Harry hoped to have the situation resolved within 36 hours.

“JARVIS. I’m going to be using magical transportation, and I don’t know how well my phone will hold up to it over that distance. Once I’m there I’ll likely go dark with my cloak anyway.” Harry would be using a Portkey to get back to the neighbourhood of Grimmauld Place. To be on the safe side, Harry was then planning to pair up his cloak with some sound muffling charms before beginning the hunt.

There would be no honour in this fight. If Harry could sneak up on Lestrange and send a curse to his back, he would do so without hesitation. It rankled to use such tactics, but there was much more at stake than Harry’s morals.

“ _Thank you for informing me Hadrian. I hope you don’t mind that Sir and I will attempt to keep an eye on you through other means anyway?”_ JARVIS enquired mildly, bringing a small smile to Harry’s face.

“I wouldn’t expect anything different from you two.” He admitted fondly. “Keep an eye on him for me?”

“ _For you Hadrian, of course_.”

 

 

 

Harry spent two hours waiting three houses down from number twelve, hidden by his cloak and several sleuthing charms he’d learnt from Moody over the Christmas of his fifth year.

As one of the only magical areas left in London, the house would act as a beacon to others despite the many protections. Rabastan would also have the slight advantage of having visited the house before – his sister-in-law had been a Black after all.

It was only after the two hours passed that Harry felt comfortable enough to actually make use of the Elder wand.

With the cloak buzzing warmly around him, Harry moved into a comfortable sitting position and closed his eyes. The Death Stick twisted through his magical awareness, eager and adoring as ever.

Mentally chastising the wand for it’s eagerness, Harry started to slowly spread out his magic through the street. It was harder here than it was in Tony’s house due to his limited familiarity, but the wand helped stabilise his reach.

_There!_ The stick of Elder called happily, helping identify a residual magical signature directly across the street from where the door to number twelve would normally lie. It was dark and sickly, Tom Riddle’s presence living on through his remaining followers.

Harry frowned in reply to the Death Stick’s proclamation. There was more to the presence than what it first gave away. Magical residue was a tricky thing – difficult for average magicals to detect, let alone read, but Harry was quickly realising his magic had grown more than he’d first thought. Even three houses away the intent in Rabastan’s magic was startling clear – Harry wasn’t the only one hunting.

Rabastan was looking for Harry, just as much as Harry was looking for him.

Now that Harry knew Rabastan’s intent his own nerves settled. The public wasn’t particularly in danger and it was unlikely anyone from the magical world knew about Tony, let alone the escaped convict.

Harry felt the calm settle over him, the wand and cloak Hallows both warm and anticipatory.

Opening his eyes, Harry carefully stood. The man was long gone from here, but Harry thought he knew where to try next.

Rabastan would soon find that he was in over his head.

The Master of Death was hunting.

 

 

 

Harry landed half a mile from the old Riddle House, in the front yard of the Gaunt Shack. Despite their magical history, the people with knowledge of these locations were few, and those who did know did not want them tainting their new world. The two properties were stripped of magic but remained neglected due to their past which lived on in the memory of the locals.

Harry remained encased in the invisibility cloak, Elder wand held aloft underneath it. Though Harry had calmed and was confident in his abilities, it would be arrogant to assume that the younger Lestrange couldn’t surprise him.

Harry had seen arrogance take down too many to fall victim to it himself.

He walked the half mile carefully but efficiently in light English drizzle, magic stretching out in all directions so as to dig out any traps that may have been laid, and to keep the cloak from becoming damp. His magic was singing with the effort, heightening Harry’s senses in preparation for danger. This was where his specialty lay after all.

The sun seemed to dim as the Riddle House came into view. The garden was hideously overgrown with no grounds keeper to look after it, thorny vines creeping along the tall wrought iron fence like something from a fairy tale. Most of the windows were missing glass and the roof had collapsed in several places. The house looked as though a strong wind would knock it over.

It would have been the stuff of nightmares if Harry had not had worse things to occupy his dreams with since he was eleven.

His magic shivered over the first piece of foreign active magic that Harry had come across in years. It carried the same sickly aura that the magic residue at Grimmauld Place had, but this active magic told a him that his quarry’s magic had not decreased during his imprisonment.

It was a simple alarm charm. Clever really – most detection spells were to locate strong magic, not the weak nature of the alarm. Unfortunately for Rabastan, Harry had progressed beyond such detection charms. It seemed as though the man were expecting someone Auror trained. Once again, Rabastan’s enforced isolation was playing in Harry’s favour.

Very carefully Harry stretched his magic further, the Elder wand vibrating in his grip with distracting excitement. A light breeze whipped around Harry’s ankles but the cloak remained stationary, as keen to help Harry as the wand was.

Rabastan called to Harry’s magic like a moth to flame. He was so easy to find in this way that Harry frowned for a moment at the simplicity. Was his magic so unusual that others didn’t know to shield from it?

There was little for it however. Harry could not afford to have the man slip through his fingers, not when innocent lives could be the price.

He pulled his magic back from where it had been scoping out the second floor where the ex-Death Eater was waiting, concentrating back on the alarm charm. There was nothing else around beyond the single spell, so Harry decided to think laterally.

With no sound at all, Harry dissaparated, reappearing some thirty meters to the left of the front door underneath a glass-less window. He paused once more, breathing calmly and listening to see if he’d tripped anything.

After a minute of nothing, Harry decided it was probably safe enough to move forward, and slipped carefully into the dark, still house.

 

 

 

Pepper had known instantly that something was wrong.

She had sent Romanoff off to check that everything was ready with the pilot before getting straight to the point.

“Where’s Harry?”  The redhead had asked, frown crinkling the skin between her eyebrows.

Tony, already on edge and hating being separated from the wizard, hadn’t wanted to risk the spy on board overhearing anything important. “Harry had a personal matter to attend to. He’ll be back at work by the time we get back.”

Pepper, bless her, had pretended to accept the response, offering some useless platitude as the Widow moved back into the cabin.

The flight was torturous. Harry’s phone had cut out as soon as he’d teleported away from the Malibu house (but seriously, who thought of calling it a _Portkey_ exactly? It was like the magicals were all laughing at him), and JARVIS had been unable to locate him since. They’d been warned of course, but JARVIS had known exactly where Harry was since the moment Tony had met with him in London, and not knowing was driving the AI to distraction. The last time JARVIS had lost anyone it was Tony in an Afghan dessert.

By the time they’d landed Tony was filled with nervous energy, barely remembering that there was a _plan_.

They walked towards the hotel, Happy carrying his portable suit. It was not nearly as powerful as his normal suit, but he hadn’t had the time to manufacture his theoretical element before leaving, so his other suits were staring to become a chore to operate.

“You know, it’s Europe. Whatever happens in the next 20 minutes, just go with it.” Tony murmured to Pepper and Happy, looking around quickly for inspiration. The quicker he did something stupid, the quicker he could go back to the hotel room and panic quietly with JARVIS.

“Go with it? Go with what?” Pepper asked shrewdly, tilting her head to the side in question.

Tony gave a half nod in reply – Yes, this was part of the plan.

Then he began to make quite a nuisance of himself.

He questioned the table, called Pepper out on every silly little thing, flirted with Widow and basically acted like an ass. The only bright spot was that he got to call out Justin Hammer. It also happened to be when he finally decided what stupid thing he could do at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Lucky he was rich enough to own his own racing car.

 

 

 

Lucky Harry was not prone to fearing the dark, because the house was dark and bloody creepy. The going was slow due to the rubbish littering the first floor left over from squatters and teenagers. Harry felt as though someone was watching him every step, his skin crawling when he realised that several paintings of who were likely past Riddle’s still adorned the walls. The crudely drawn moustaches and warty noses did nothing to detract from the atmosphere. It was like every horror movie Hollywood had ever made, condensed into one house.

Harry kept his magic close, stretching out in only a five meter radius to watch the way for curses. By the time he made it up the stairs his senses were massively improved, sight sharp and hearing able to make out the sound of Rabastan Lestrange breathing softly only three rooms away.

Of course, that was when it all went sideways.

 

 

 

Of course, everything went sideways.

Tony barely had time to react when he rounded the corner in his very fast car to see a large man in the remains of orange overalls with electricity whips. He went to turn, but the man was more than ready for him.

The whips sliced through the car like the proverbial knife through butter.

Despite his imminent doom, Tony had the second to notice and react to the object powering the man’s whips. _Was that an Arc Reactor?!_

The world flipped upside down as the car can to rest on its roof. Moving quickly, Tony got the hell out of the destroyed machine. And just in time.

The whips came down again, rending the remaining piece of car in two right where Tony had been sitting just a moment before. The crowd was screaming and there were people running, and Tony knew he had to try and stop this person before he did any more damage.

There was a piece of car lying next to him, but as it turned out lightweight material used to build fast cars did not pack much of a punch. The blow to the head seemed to just make the stranger angry if anything.

Tony managed to avoid the next three strikes, if only barely, before he was thrown back into the car behind him. His head stung but he was mostly alright. He was also tired of getting his ass kicked all the time.

He timed his leap for safety carefully so that the exploding car missed him. It seemed to miss whip man too however, who was still stalking towards him.

Tony was going to have to do something stupid.

Harry was going to kill him.

 

 

 

Tony was going to kill him. At least that was what Harry was thinking as he had to duck a stream of bright green magic.

As far as he could tell, Harry hadn’t actually tipped the ex-Death Eater off to his presence yet. The man was simply impatient and had decided to vent his frustrations on the hallway while he waited.

But that did mean that the room Rabastan had taken refuge in was now empty.

Concentrating, Harry once more dissaparated silently, reappearing at the other end of the hall in front of the still open door before stepping quickly through the doorway.

Peaking around the corner, he could see that Rabastan looked wild, hair long and matted and looking like Sirius had after escaping Azkaban. Except his eyes – The youngest Lestrange looked mad, eyes betraying his insanity.

Harry immediately felt a tiny bit better about the whole situation. He wasn’t killing a sane individual – he was putting down a rabid dog without a master. But of course, that just made the man that much more dangerous. It was why Bellatrix had been so effective – insanity couldn’t be predicted.

So distracted by the insane man tearing apart the hallway, Harry grew lax with his watching. The little alarm charm wasn’t loud, but it seemed to echo throughout the whole house as Rabastan went utterly silent.

Damn it.

 

 

 

Damn it.

His suit was so close, but Pepper didn’t perform well when under intense attack by an insane man with electric whips. Not that he blamed her of course.

Happy was rather uncharacteristically panicking as well, ramming the man ineffectively again and again. Finally, Pepper managed to fling the suit from the car and Tony was encased in seconds. He pushed the destroyed Rolls out of the way and moved to _detain_ the man, but the whips were a bit more than he was expecting.

Tony really needed to produce that new element, because the Palladium was just not cutting it anymore.

The whips wrapped around him, threatening to drive him to the ground, but Tony instead used the leverage to force the man closer. Finally, Tony managed to pull the reactor from the man’s chest.

It was a very good copy of his own, but still years behind him. The efficiency was down, and the fuel would likely have only lasted ten minutes longer before giving up due to the massive power drain of the whips. The man was lucky it hadn’t exploded.

Tony crushed the reactor as the man was taken away, yelling about how Tony had lost.

This was not good at all.

 

 

 

This was not good at all.

Rabastan burst into the room with his wand blazing with curses, and Harry had no choice but to shield against a disembowelment curse or lose his intestines all over the floor, invisible or not.

“Come out _Potter_! Come out and take your penalty for killing the Dark Lord like a man!” Rabastan screamed, spittle flying from his mouth.

And _of course_ , all of this was still because of Tom bloody Riddle.

Harry took a split second to consider his options before moving into action. Rabastan’s curses were likely to bring the whole house down on their heads if this continued for too long, and the time for subtlety was long past.

Head on at full power it was then.

With only a thought the invisibility cloak shimmered out of existence and back into it’s little pocket dimension. Harry brought the Elder Wand up to shield again as Lestrange got an instant lock on his now visible person, and saw the recognition of the wand that both Dumbledore and Voldemort had wielded.

Harry didn’t pause to allow Rabastan to catch up. The Death Stick sung in tune with his magic, so happy to be used for more than a silly little transfiguration trick.

_We win, we win!_ The thing crowed and Harry couldn’t help the snarling smile in answer. He threw three curses in the time it took Lestrange to manage one. Harry twirled out of the way rather than shielding again, feeling the killing curse move the hair on his head.

The room was small, but he made do. Four more debilitating curses and a disarming charm to Rabastan’s two killing curses, and Harry drew first blood with a cutting curse across Rabastan’s shoulder, just inches away from his neck.

Rabastan seemed to realise how the fight was going to end. “Learnt some new tricks, Potter?” He accused while diving behind what was left of a couch. Harry blasted the piece of furniture out of the way with little finesse, but had to cast a three layered shielding charm to stop a truly nasty blasting curse that Harry hadn’t seen since the Department of Mysteries fiasco in his fifth year. The shield charm did the job, stopping the curse from reflecting into a wall that would have been turned to so much rubble. He retaliated again, the Death Stick pleased to have a true opponent and whispering happiness that his magic echoed. Two curses and a jinx met Rabastan’s Killing Curse, before Harry showed his experience in fights to the death by flinging a small blasting hex to the other man’s feet, sending him to the ground – There was no such thing as fighting dirty in this sort of situation.

The small reprieve in curses due to Rabastan’s surprised fall was all Harry needed.

The curse left the Death Stick with deadly accuracy, hitting his opponent in centre-mass just as the man regained his feet. It was not green, seeming to surprise Rabastan, but Harry had never intended it to be.

Everything paused.

Rabastan dropped his wand.

“I’m not the person you remember.” Harry murmured as Rabastan’s face went deathly pale. The man’s breathing was starting to hitch, and he looked wide eyed at Harry with genuine surprise.

“I learnt my lesson in the war. I grew up and realised that the world is not always as nice as everyone pretends it is.”

Rabastan fell to his knees, hands coming up to claw at his throat as his breathing was stopped entirely. Harry finally allowed the Death Stick to drop, the wand smug as it delivered it’s namesake. “I’ve granted you a painless death. It’s more than you deserve.”

Harry wanted to bring up the Longbottom’s, Amelia Bones, Fabian and Gideon Prewet, countless others. But it wouldn’t have meant anything to the dying man.

Rabastan was grey now, slowly but painlessly asphyxiating.

The Hallows were buzzing along the edge of his mind. Harry could distinguish all three of them and later when he would look back on this moment, he would blame on that the final words Rabastan Lestrange heard in this world.

“Tell Death I said hi.”

Rabastan collapsed, dead as he hit the ground.

Harry fell into the only remaining chair, hands between his hands. It was the second life he’d purposely taken since meeting Tony, and the second life that he couldn’t regret taking.

What was he turning into, with a title like Master of Death haunting him at every turn? Was he still the same person if he could just _take_ a life like that, granted the life of a truly horrible and insane person?

Harry thought of Tony, building a suit to protect whose who couldn’t protect himself. The suit wasn’t a shield, as much as the rest of the world thought it was. It was a weapon with the ability to destroy, but Harry didn’t see Tony any differently. In fact, he was fiercely proud that Tony was willing to step forward in defence of the innocent.

Harry allowed himself one more second of doubt, looking at the still body of Rabastan Lestrange, before he felt his resolve harden and shoulders relax.

As long as they were trying to make the world a better place, to protect innocent lives, Harry would not doubt Tony and he would not doubt himself again.

There could not be Life without a little Death after all.

 

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

Pepper, in a truly brilliant act of forethought, had asked Rushman-Romanoff to stay behind and settle their bills, so the plane was a safe-ish place once more (JARVIS was unable to pick up any bugs, so it was likely fine).

It meant that Tony was able to react properly when JARVIS informed him of Harry’s return.

“ _Sir, I have relocated Hadrian. He has just reappeared in the Workshop at the Malibu house._ ”

“Oh, thank fuck for that.” Tony couldn’t help replying with, head dropping down into his hands as a great deal of weight came off his shoulders. “Is he alright?”

“ _Hadrian appears to be uninjured.”_ A pause. “ _Though slightly distressed now that he is being made aware of the incident at the Grand Prix._ ”

Tony looked up at JARVIS’ main speaker unit above the flat screen in a particularly human gesture. JARVIS was everywhere in this plane, but humans liked to look at what they were talking to.

A good thing to. JARVIS used that moment to put up a feed of the ‘shop, just in time to hear Harry’s voice rising in volume with his ‘distress’, that really was a touch closer to panic than anything else.

“What do you _mean,_ he was attacked? JARVIS! Where is he? Do I need to –”

Tony jumped in to save JARVIS, scrambling up to see the screen a little clearer. Pepper was watching to the side, hand clenching fretfully against the arm rests of her seat, but he didn’t try to exclude her.

“Harry! It’s okay, I’m here. And you’re home, thank God. Are you alright?”

Harry had zeroed in on the screen JARVIS had elected to project Tony from with scary accuracy, dominant hand twitching as though it still held a wand. His eyes were bright and wild in a way that Tony had come to associate with magic and adrenaline, but JARVIS was right in that he didn’t look injured.

“Tony.” His deadly little love breathed out, all but collapsing into the chair in front of the screen. There was a fine tremble in his shoulders, but nothing to cause worry. Tony felt himself relax further.

“What happened? JARVIS was explaining, that you were _in_ the race, and someone attacked you? Are you hurt?” Harry looked honestly horrified and Tony couldn’t help but rush to reassure him.

“I’m fine baby. We’re fine.” He promised, gesturing to Pepper who nodded resolutely.

Harry cast his eyes over Pepper quickly before returning to Tony, looking for more information.

“There was just a little fight. Some Russian guy ripped off the reactor, saying his father had helped create it. Another person Howard screwed over.” Tony added bitterly. “I went to jail to meet him, find out what he wanted. I think it was just a revenge thing. Clever guy, but crazy.”

Harry was frowning unhappily. “When will you be home? You’re flying back now?”

Tony found himself reaching towards the screen to smooth out the lines on Harry’s face, but caught himself just in time. “Yeah. We’re a couple hours out still. I’ll let you know as soon as we land, alright?”

He waited for an answering nod before beginning his own interrogation. “And everything went alright on your end?”

Harry cast a brief look at Pepper again before replying. “It was a little messier than I’d hoped, but no collateral damage. I’d have been done sooner, but I needed to make sure the right people would realise what had happened.”

Despite his skirting of the issue, Pepper was also frowning now. It looked as though she was trying to solve a particularly irritating accounting discrepancy.

“Okay, that’s, well good I suppose. You can tell me after I get back. You’ll be alright for a few hours?” Harry was nodding with a tiny smile quirking his mouth.

Tony felt an answering grin tug at his lips, unable to resist. “I’m glad you’re alright, Baby Doll.” He murmured, pretending not to notice as Pepper tactfully looked the other way.

“I’m glad you’re okay too, Tony. Hurry home?”

“You got it, Love.”

JARVIS closed the connection, leaving Tony staring at his own sappy expression. To make matters worse, Happy had obviously returned from his snack run and was grinning from over Tony’s shoulder.

“Well, this is embarrassing.” He couldn’t help but mutter before turning with a flourish.

“Can I help you?” he tried to ask haughtily, but Happy didn’t budge.

“You two are so adorable together. Two tiny little guys making goo-goo eyes at each other.” One of his closest friends offered, and Tony couldn’t help but puff up to his _considerable_ full height. Before he could provide commentary on Happy’s _goo-goo eyes_ at Pepper whenever he thought the woman wasn’t looking, the other man continued.

“When are you gonna make it all official like? Cali make same-sex marriage legal this year, right?”

Tony stopped dead.

“Happy!” Pepper hissed. “You can’t just spring that on him! You know he gets, he’ll do something stupid to –”

“Why didn’t _I_ think of that?” Tony cut in, brain kicking back into gear. It was like the proverbial light bulb moment, inspiration striking so hard it made his head spin. “The rings can be the same gold alloy as the suit!”

Pepper’s mouth fell open in shock, while even Happy, who had been the one to bring it up, looked completely surprised. His eyebrows would join his hair if they got any higher.

“That’s… Why _didn’t_ I think of that ages ago? Not a big wedding or anything, but a civil ceremony at least. Happy!” Tony whirled around from where he’d be staring into space, considering the idea. “How hard is it to become an officiant? I want you to marry us. And Pepper, you and Rhodey will be our witnesses. This is perfect!”

Tony finally noticed the effect he’d had on his two companions. Pepper looked utterly enchanted and Happy, the big sap, looked like he was going to tear up.

“Whoa, easy on there, big guy! It’s just marriage.” Before he could continue, Pepper was hugging him. “I’m so proud of you Tony! Of course I’ll witness your ceremony!” and then there was Happy who finally managed to get out, “You want _me_ to marry you?” before hugging both Tony and Pepper in a big bear hug.

And really, Tony couldn’t believe the issue hadn’t some up earlier. He and Harry were likely bonded for life by Death anyway. They couldn’t really _get_ more committed to one another than potential immortality. And Tony adored Harry. He loved his mind and his face and his magic and his body. He loved the colour of his eyes, and the way he could make anyone feel like the most important person in the room simply by letting them talk uninterrupted. He loved the way that Harry could teach tiny children one day and go out and deal with dangerous threats with ruthless efficiency another.

Tony loved Harry, so of course the next step was marriage. He knew that Harry would definitely say yes if Tony asked.

The part of his brain that always sounded like JARVIS tried to mention that it might not be the best time, what with SHIELD and all, but Tony decided to ignore it as per usual. He was going to go home and create his new element, fix the Arc Reactor, and propose. In exactly that order.

Lots of things would probably get in the way (Tony still had a niggling feeling they hadn’t seen the last of the crazy Russian guy), but what did it matter really? Tony would know they were engaged to be married, and Harry would know that Tony wanted him for all eternity.

Plus, imagine how pissed Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD would be when he found out Tony and Harry had been together all along?

This was the best idea he’d _ever_ had.

 

 

 

Harry managed to shower and eat a meal in the time it took Tony to get home, washing decades old dust from his hair where it had fallen during the firefight and eating for the first time since he’d left the house.

JARVIS was a more obvious companion than usual while he moved around the house. It made him realise just how put off JARVIS had been when Harry had gone dark from his view, his phone nothing but a paperweight after the portkey. He’d felt immediately guilty, because it meant JARVIS and Tony would have been worried the entire time he was away. Hopefully Harry wouldn’t need to do something like that again.

Tony arriving home with Pepper and Happy in tow settled something in Harry that he hadn’t noticed was agitated. “Harry!” his genius exclaimed as they met each other in the lounge, immediately pulling each other close.

He allowed himself to close his eyes as a hand pulled his face against Tony’s neck. His magic flared out, invisible but _there_ , confirming what his eyes had told him. Tony was fine – any cuts or bruises from his own fight were long since healed.

“That was such a stupid idea.” Harry finally admitted, giving voice to what he was sure they were both thinking.

Tony’s small laugh tickled through Harry’s chest, so closely were they still pressed together. “Yeah, that wasn’t fun. We definitely seem to do better together. Now we know.”

They pulled apart and Harry remembered the two others in the room. Happy was smiling the softest smile Harry had ever seen on his face, and Pepper looked almost teary despite her own grin. Which was strange, because they’d both seen Tony and Harry together before.

How suspicious.

Tony cleared his throat obnoxiously. “Well, what are you two still doing here? Pepper, don’t you have a PR disaster to turn into a good news story? You’ve got that statement from me, informing everyone what a piece of junk that reactor looking thing was, right?”

Pepper straightened up in surprise at being addressed, but was back into business mode before Tony had finished talking.

“Yes, you’re correct. Lie low for a day or two just in case.” She ordered, expression become stern in a half second.

Tony grinned, and not really in an assuring way. “Of course, Pepper.”

Pepper’s eyes narrowed at the reply before offering a parting threat. “You will lay low, or I will personally sign you up to attend SI’s sexual harassment seminar again.”

With that she turned to leave the room without waiting for a reply, Happy following behind her with a bemused expression.

Grabbing his hand, still grinning, Tony pulled him down to the ‘shop.

He didn’t let go when they arrived, pushing Harry down onto their couch before following him down, cocooning Harry between his body and the back of the couch.

“Tell me.” Tony demanded, face so close to his that they were breathing the same air. Though he had hidden it well till now, this close there was no concealing anything. Tony had been stressed and worried and was only just now coming down properly.

“No more Lone Ranger for either of us, huh?” Harry murmured, extracting a hand to trace Tony’s carefully styled van dyke.

Tony frowned mildly, pulling Harry closer. “No, I don’t think it’s working very well for us.” He paused for a second, considering, before continuing on. “You know I don’t care right? I get that you killed someone today, but I don’t care.”

It always amazed Harry how his brilliant, slightly mad genius could get to the crux of a matter so quickly.

Despite his little revelation from earlier, it was hard to realise how far he would go. It was hard realising how much war had changed him.

“You should care.” Harry whispered. “I’m a murderer. And I don’t regret it.”

Tony snorted softly. “That would make me a complete hypocrite. What do you think I did to those guys in Gulmira? What did we do to Obie, together?” Another pause. “Kind of.”

Harry sighed, pressing his forehead to Tony’s and closing his eyes. “I know I’m being stupid. Can’t you just let me mope a bit?”

Harry could tell Tony was smiling without opening his eyes. “Would you let me mope? Nope, not at all.”

Harry actually pulled back solely to roll his eyes, before Tony gently reeled him back in. “Tell me yours, and I’ll tell you mine. And we can go from there.”

“When did you get so smart?”

An answering grin. “Genius, remember?”

Harry considered if it was worth pushing the irritating genius off the couch.

 

 

  

Tony kept Harry close while he built the particle collider.

The melancholy that had hovered around the wizard had faded slowly but surely, helped out by Tony demanding assistance in lifting heavy things and demolishing other things with magic.

He understood, really. Harry had gone out with intent, which was what made it different to a spur of the moment, life or death decision. But Tony truly believed that the world was better off without the few irredeemable people there were, and the other wizard was insane enough that hundreds of people could have died if Harry had done nothing.

Still, it was a personal shift, realising that you were capable of that. Tony imagined that Harry was put off more by the fact that he didn’t feel all that guilty, rather than anything else.

Tony could relate.

The collider was actually pretty impressive for something made out of what he had lying around. They were done quickly, Harry helping even if he had no idea what Tony was trying to achieve.

“Right, I think we’re done. JARVIS, calibrate and checks please! Harry, my lovely assistant! Could you please sit…” Tony took a brief moment to calculate the path the beam was going to take, before pushing Harry down firmly into a seat he knew would be in the safe zone. “There. Do not move. Got it?”

Harry had the little smile in place, the one that said You’re-so-ridiculous-sometimes-it’s-lucky-I-love-you. “I won’t move from here.” He agreed despite his bemusement.

The process ended up being a bit messy. Tony managed to cut a massive gouge in one of the walls before Harry realised what was going on and magicked up a shield to absorb some of the energy. That was impressive in itself with the high energy particles the collider was throwing out, but Tony was even more impressed by the _brand new element they created_.

“JARVIS?” Tony asked once everything settled and he could see the little blue glowing element in its cradle.

“ _Behaving as anticipated Sir. The new element is a viable replacement for the Palladium._ ”

Tony would deny it later, but there may have been a celebratory fist pump at the confirmation.

And then, “Tony?” Harry whispered next to him. His eyes moved from the new creation to Tony once he had the engineer’s attention. “You’ve fixed it?”

Tony pulled Harry in for a dramatic kiss, dipping the smaller man who clutched at Tony’s shoulders in surprise. “You bet your sweet ass I did.”

Placing Harry back on his feet, Tony got everything ready for the big change. JARVIS wanted to wait, being all sensible as per usual about tests, but Tony just _knew_ this reactor was going to work. Harry was rubbing off on him.

It was smooth and easy, the new reactor sliding into place without a hitch. And the relief was _instantaneous_.

“I am so glad I don’t have to eat six times a day anymore.” He admitted happily before checking in with Harry once more. “How does it feel? Magic mumbo-jumbo giving it the okay?”

Tony held still and Harry tentatively reached out one hand, placing it gently over the reactor housing.

Tony _felt_ the magic reaching out from Harry’s hand, curling warmly behind the reactor next to his heart. Harry’s brilliant smile was all the endorsement he needed, but the words were nice too. “It’s perfect.” His little love assured, shifting to wrap both arms around Tony’s middle.

“Good.” Tony squeezed Harry back just that little bit tighter. “You won’t complain when I call the new element _Hadrium_ then.”

Harry’s appalled expression was worth it.

 

 

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See first Chapter for Notes.
> 
> I've always felt JARVIS could be so much more that he is in the MCU. He's a creation of utter brilliance and totally deserved better than he got. I've tried to catch a little of that in this story. 
> 
> Enjoy.

Tony’s statement about the utterly inferior reactor only ended up buying them half a day.  

They were in to ‘shop when JARVIS warned them of Rhodey’s imminent arrival. “ _Sir, Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes is approaching the front door._ ”

“Damn it.” He couldn’t help but mutter. Even though he’d always planned to give Rhodey the Mark II, it grated that it would look as though he was caving to outside pressure.

Though, Rhodey being here did present an opportunity as well.

As if sensing his thoughts, Harry stood up and stretched, drawing Tony’s gaze instantly to the skin revealed in the move. “I’m gonna have a shower and make some food. Tell me if Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes is staying for dinner.”

“You can call him Rhodey, you know.” Tony said for probably the fifth time.

And Harry replied with a little smile as per usual. “Maybe when you introduce me properly, I will.” He said flippantly. “Master ensuite, JARVIS.”  Was added before Harry disappeared silently.

Tony paused for a second until JARVIS confirmed Harry was in fact in one piece and where he said he’d be, before heading upstairs the old fashioned way.

Harry was flexing his magic a little more around the house following their return. Tony thought it must be a bit stifling, having to hold it back all the time to avoid frying any electronics. To try and help, Tony had started the bots and JARVIS on EMP shielding everything in the ‘shop so there was at least one place Harry could let loose a little. It wouldn’t do much against active, concentrated magic, but it was a start. Harry had also started incorporating a little magic (such as not using the stairs any longer) into his routine, using up a little of his magical restlessness. The wizard had assured his magic would settle again – it was just a bit more active because of the brief but intense firefight against Lestrange. He’d also taken to informing JARVIS of his plans, which the AI adored him for. JARVIS was becoming just that little bit more emotive as time wore on, including displaying a sense of protective _concern_ at loosing either Harry or Tony.

By the time Tony made it upstairs, Rhodey was already in the kitchen. He had his patented frowny face on, the one he had been giving Tony since MIT. Combined with the parade rest it kind of made him want to turn right back around.

Tony was a big boy though, so he persevered.

“I know why you’re here.” He decided to jump in first. Rhodey raised an eyebrow but let him continue. Obviously the big bosses weren’t riding him too hard yet. “But before we get into that, and I’m not trying to get out of it because Harry would kick my ass for reasons to be explained later, but I really need to ask you something super important first.” And he was rambling once again.

It was different trying to ask Rhodey to witness his marriage – this was the man that had stood by him since he was fifteen. Not always right there, but if Tony had truly needed him, he had no doubt the other would come. But this was the most important thing he had ever asked for.

“JARVIS, is Harry still in the shower?” he fretted, watching as Rhodey slowly raised an eyebrow.

“ _Hadrian is presently occupied, Sir.”_

Deep breath out, and, “Rhodey, I’m gonna ask Harry to marry me. Nothing big, so no best man, but James, would you witness our marriage?”

Rhodey’s face fell into surprise for all of two seconds before slowly breaking out into a massive grin. That was probably a good sign.

“ _You_ are going to ask Harry to marry you? Your gonna be in a committed, life long relationship?” Rhodey’s grin was softening – he looked so proud. “I would be honoured to witness you getting married, Tones.” One of his eyebrows raised up ever so slightly. “Though shouldn’t you actually ask Harry first? Bit sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

Tony had _missed_ this Rhodey and his teasing – Right then he vowed to make sure life didn’t come between them again.

Tony replied with a smug grin. “Poor guy loves me. Of course he’ll say yes.”

Rhodey rolled his eyes good naturedly, throwing an arm over Tony’s shoulders. “Harry has you completely wrapped around his pinky finger, doesn’t he?”

Tony felt his face slide into something a little more sheepish as they headed for the ‘shop stairs. “Yeah. But don’t tell anyone else. I have a rep to maintain.”

 

 

 

Tony kept Rhodey occupied in the ‘Shop for the next hour or so. He was still skirting around the suit issue, but Rhodey seemed relaxed enough to keep putting the conversation off as well.

They were just talking about the latest HammerTech debacle when JARVIS spoke up.

“ _Excuse me Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes._ ” JARVIS broke in. _“Hadrian wishes for me to inform you that dinner will be ready in fifteen minutes, and he would like you to attend if you are amendable?_ ”

Tony watched as Rhodey’s eyebrows had migrated up his forehead at the news, enjoying the honest surprise. “Harry cooks?” then, “Have you been holding out on me Tones?” the older man accused, eyes squinting in mock disappointment. “After all those meals Ma made for us?”

“You would never have let me near Ma’s food if you’d known how often I’d be eating it.” Tony laughed, remembering thanksgivings at Uni where Tony had tagged along to the Rhodes household only to leave feeling 10 pounds heavier. “Plus, I think it’s just an excuse to make sure I explain things properly. There was this thing, with Pep, and I didn’t really start the conversation very well.”

They got up and Rhodey trailed Tony up the stairs. “Yeah, I’ve seen you try to explain things before. Unless it’s science, you usually fail fairly spectacularly.”

“Thank you for that. I just love to hear complementary things about me, really.” Tony muttered, pouting.

“Someone has to keep you grounded. You’re welcome. Woah!”

Woah was right. The kitchen smelt amazing. “Are you putting in more effort because we have a guest? Because I feel like that is wholly unfair.” Tony used to announce himself, unselfconsciously wrapping his arms around Harry’s waist to give him a quick kiss.

“JARVIS does the shopping, not me. And I don’t think you should blame the Being that runs the house and controls your water temperature of bias.” His other half replied, green eyes alight with amusement.

Rhodey guffawed behind him as he settled into one of the island seats, ignoring Tony’s betrayed scowl.

“Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes – I don’t think we were officially introduced the last time we met.” Harry offered a hand quickly cleaned with a tea-towel to Rhodey. “Please call me Harry.”

Tony watched as Rhodey softened ever so slightly further, shoulders relaxing and eyes crinkling around the edges the way they only did when the man was pleased. As usual, it was fascinating to watch others interact with Harry, the way they couldn’t help but smile when he did.

“Just Rhodes is fine. Or James, or Rhodey. But if we could leave the other nick-names for Tony, that would be great. I don’t think I really want ‘Sour-patch’ or ‘Platypus’ to catch on.”

“I might stick with James then.” Harry offered, half grin still in place.

Harry started plating up the food (that totally looked like handmade gnocchi, which meant JARVIS was definitely playing favourites and there would be _words_ despite Harry’s warning) before continuing. “I thought dinner might be a good time to talk things through, unless Tony has already tried?”

The grin playing around Rhodey’s mouth quirked higher. “No, though he mentioned something before completely changing the subject, as per usual.”

Harry glanced at Tony, raising a brow in an are-you-going-to-explain-now? look. Tony was become very good at reading those looks.

“It’s kind of a long story if I have to explain the whole thing.” Tony tried, stuffing a few pieces of potato in his mouth while he had the chance.

“That’s fine.” Rhodey assured. “I’ll definitely be having seconds. This is amazing!”

 

 

 

For the most part Tony was able to successfully explain the whole story to James with little intervention on Harry’s part. He had no doubt that Tony would have been able to have the conversation himself once he had gotten over his pride and dislike of bending to the army, but the genius liked to have someone with him as translator. Because his brain moved so quickly, sometimes Tony forgot that not everyone could keep up with his thought process, and found it frustrating that his explanations didn’t always make sense. It was a little easier with James – a product of their long history no doubt.

“SHIELD. Never heard of them.” James commented as Harry pulled some ice-cream out of the freezer.

“I’d have been a little concerned if you had. Secret agency and all.” Tony had given James the same explanation as Pepper, with the added bonus being that this time it was true. Harry let a tendril of magic brush up against the new reactor element which vibrated comfortingly in response. The death of Lestrange and the resolved reactor issue had gone a long way into soothing his agitated magic – he no longer felt as though danger was imminent, so his magic had felt comfortable enough to settle.

“And you think me taking the Mark II will get Defence off your back while also proving to SHIELD that you’re unstable because you’re dying. Dick move by SHIELD, by the way.”

Tony snorted. “Yeah, that’s pretty much what Harry said too.”

James’ mouth quirked upwards into a smile at that, which Tony seemed to automatically mirror. Watching the two men together proved just how at ease they were with each other – they were how Harry had always pictured his father and Sirius, with the added bonus that this James tended to give off a sense of calm that infected everyone in the room.

“So how have you kept this on the down low?” The older man queried, gesturing to Tony who had wrapped his arm around Harry’s waist so as to tug him close enough to steal some ice-cream.

“No.” Harry scolded lightly, tapping the genius on the nose with his spoon. “You said you didn’t want any.” Tony’s grin was not sorry in the slightest.

“We don’t really go out together much. And everyone who has seen us thinks I’m just extra security.” Harry replied to James, pulling his bowl out of reach of still wandering hands.

James had an eyebrow raised in disbelief. It was understandable perhaps, as one of Tony’s hand’s had dropped rather inappropriately low on his back once he’d realised Harry was not giving up his dessert.

Harry felt a light blush creep up his neck.

“Harry doesn’t let me close enough to touch in public, that’s how.” Tony decided to intervene, causing James to smile softly in response.

The moment hung for a moment, calm and happy, before reality crept back in once more.

“Guess you should show me how the fly this suit then Tony, if you’re sure about this.” James asked, concern leaking into his tone once more.

Then Tony, the big softy, replied, “I know that you’ll keep it safe, Honeybear. I trust you.”

Harry was totally going to reward him for that later.

 

 

 

Tony had wound up back in the ‘Shop in the early hours of the morning, content with the few hours of sleep he’d gotten wrapped around Harry, but fingers itching to keep messing with the Suit.

The new element had necessitated a few upgrades with the power output increasing by 34 percent, but it also meant that Tony could try and streamline a few of the movement systems. Now that he had a little more power to play with he could also throw in a few more toys.

JARVIS helped him tinker, running construction in the background and double-checking Tony’s numbers. By the time a few hours had passed they almost had enough changes between them for a new Suit.

“You know what J, lets just upgrade. Mark VI.” Tony decided, pushing Dummy’s claw gently away from the mug of water that was probably too close to the edge of the bench. Then Tony realised JARVIS had yet to reply. “J?” he asked, puzzled.

“ _My apologies Sir. I just received a hit on the search you asked me to keep up, concerning Mr Vanko.”_ The AI sounded mildly concerned, which from JARVIS was Bad News.

“Go on.” Tony encouraged, leaning back in his chair to give his full attention.

“ _Mr Vanko was seen by local CCTV entering HammerTech in the back of a black SUV. I have attempted to access the main HammerTech security system to confirm, however it would appear that Mr Vanko is being held away from the main buildings._ ”

Tony brought his hands up behind his head, thinking. “Don’t stress about it, J – you did a good job finding him at all. Don’t overreach too much now that I’ve let you run wild, alright?”

“ _No Sir. I will endeavour to be careful._ ” JARVIS assured.

Tony had caved a few days ago, deleting a few of JARVIS’ protocols concerning internet access. If JARVIS was evolving enough to exhibit emotions, Tony couldn’t keep justifying keeping the AI locked under layers of protection that were more a cage than anything else. Plus, Tony had JARVIS’ word that he would tell Tony if he started feeling homicidal.

Tony had seen _2001: A Space Odyssey_ , thanks.

“Maybe just keep an eye on Justin himself. If he’s using Vanko for something, he’ll want to be right in the thick of it, the controlling idiot.”

“ _Of course, Sir. And if I find Mr Vanko?”_

Tony felt the frown creep across his face. “Then we’ll have to do something to stop them.”

A crash interrupted them, echoing through the ‘Shop. Dummy had finally succeeded in knocking over the mug, breaking the serious atmosphere nicely.

“You are cleaning that up.” Tony promised, watching as Dummy raised and lowered his arm in an approximation of a nod before scuttling off to find a cloth.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See first Chapter for Notes.
> 
> While I've read many a fanfiction that utilised Fury and SHIELD as a convenient and versatile villain, I've always had to suspend my disbelief to an extent. This simply comes down to the fact that Nick Fury is the Director of SHIELD, and generally people don't get that high up in organisations without having some serious business acumen.   
> The first time I wrote this, Fury was totally a dick. And it works usually - it just didn't feel right here.   
> This will be a trend I think; characters having some level of interpersonal awareness, and the ability to think past their first emotional response to a situation. 
> 
> I hope this doesn't put anyone offside. But really, how else was Avengers still going to work out?
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> (P.S. I've been writing too many work emails - I almost signed off with 'Best Regards', which is slightly too passive aggressive here I think)

Tony was up to something.

It wasn’t anything to do with the crazy guy from the Grand Prix, because the engineer had told him everything about that, including the man’s current proximity at HammerTech. It also wasn’t anything reactor related, because Harry was fairly certain that the only one who payed more attention to the reactor than him was JARVIS, and JARVIS trusted him enough to share things that effected Tony’s health.

So Harry decided to go along with it, confident that Tony would reveal his hand sooner or later. And with the way the man was fiddling constantly, it was likely to be sooner.

“You want me to choose a car for a drive.” Harry repeated skeptically, gazing around the room at the assembled cars. Harry already knew he was going to choose the Saleen, but he didn’t need Tony to know that just yet. “Where are we going?”

It was just after 5pm – either too early or too late for most of the places Tony might like to go.

Tony, cagey and not bothering to try and hide it, answered about as comprehensively as Harry thought he would. “Surprise. Because we can. Because I want to go for a drive. Take your pick. Please pick a car?”

Harry let him stew for a half moment longer before caving and pointing at the Saleen. “That one. Where are we going, Tony?”

Harry watched in amusement as Tony opened his mouth to automatically answer before his teeth snapped shut with a click. The play frown he received was worth it.

“Nice try. Go upstairs and put on the clothes that are on the bed. Five minutes.” Tony’s hands wouldn’t sit still, flapping and shoving gently at Harry to move him on.

How curious.

“Five minutes.” Harry agreed. “Master bedroom, JARVIS.” Harry added before disapparating without a sound to reappear next to the bed.

The formal pants were a tailored dark grey pair that always attracted Tony’s eyes downward, paired with an emerald green shirt that looked to be the same colour as the dress Harry had transfigured when he’d been Helena. Harry got ready economically, automatically trying to control his hair but giving up in a few seconds.

“Can I go back now, JARVIS?” he queried, casting his eyes around the bedroom for anything he’d missed.

“ _I believe that would be wise, Hadrian. Sir is looking particularly flustered._ ”

Harry, now fairly certain as to what Tony had planned, apparated back to the man’s side. He was in his own nice clothes, looking good despite the single stripe of grease near his temple. Harry decided to leave it – it was very Tony.

The genius _was_ nervous, and Harry felt his heart flutter in response like he’d heard Hermione describe when Ron had gotten his act together. Not that Harry would ever admit to it.

He really hoped he was right about what Tony was about to do, otherwise Harry would have to do it himself now that the idea had planted itself firmly in his mind.

Tony opened the car door for Harry, leaning in to kiss his temple before shutting the door. By the time the other man had made his way around the back of the car to the driver’s side he seemed to have calmed somewhat. Enough at least, that Harry didn’t fear they were going to crash into a tree any longer.

“You’re not going to ask again?” Tony queried, starting the car with a low roar.

“No. We’re just going for a drive, you said.” Harry knew he was smirking a little. “Just make sure you go fast, and I can be patient.”

One of Tony’s hands migrated from the shifter to Harry’s upper leg as they meandered their way up to ground level from the ‘shop. “Fast. I can do fast.” The suggestive tone was no less than Harry expected, but it still pushed him to startled laughter that was lost in the wind through the open windows as Tony floored it.

True to his word, Tony drove _fast_. There was no talking with the windows down, unless they wanted to shout. Instead, Harry kept his hand on top of Tony’s on the gearshift. Tony was constantly smiling, eyes bright with exhilaration and looking utterly carefree for just a few moments. It was contagious, and Harry laughed out loud with every tire squealing corner.

They ended up at a lookout in the hills behind the house, looking towards the ocean. The sun was just beginning to set towards the west, glinting off the orange bodywork of the Saleen.

“Harry, light of my life.” Tony began, turning away from the frankly beautiful sunset towards Harry. It was corny, but Harry knew that deep down Tony was a bit of a romantic.

“I did have a reason for coming here.” He continued, one hand sliding into his pocket. Harry had to bite his lip so as not to interrupt – Tony looked so adourably nervous, and Harry thought the other man might lose his nerve if Harry said anything now.

Tony paused, and Harry felt the butterflies he’d been keeping under control until that moment creep up on him.

“I love you. I love absolutely everything about you, and I want to spend every minute of my life by your side, be it years or millennia.” Tony paused, clearing his throat.

Harry, whose face was staring to hurt from how widely he was smiling, was surprised to realise he was tearing up. He also couldn’t help but speak, unable to hold back any longer. “I love you too.” He assured, voice think with emotion.

Tony smiled beautifully in response, outshining the sun setting around them.

“Hadrian James.” Tony pulled a little box from his pocket before sliding down onto one knee. “Will you do me the honour of marrying me?”

The box opened to reveal a familiar gold metal crafted into a simple band.

Harry was nodding his head and gasping “Yes.” before the rest of him had caught up, holding his left hand out to Tony and noticing that he was trembling as though he’d used too much magic at once. 

Tony gently pulled his hand close, kissing his knuckles before pulling the ring from the box and sliding it into place. A perfect fit.

Harry’s magic ran wild, vibrating bright and happy around them as Tony stood up, pulling Harry into his arms. The reactor pulsed strongly in time with the magic as Tony kissed him, and when they pulled back from each other Harry noticed that the ground around them had sprouted with new bright green grass dotted with tiny flowers.

“That’s never happened before.” Harry tried to convey through his persistent smile. Tony laughed huskily in response, reeling him back in for another kiss.

“I like it.” Tony murmured against Harry’s lips. “It shows me that you’re happy.”

Tony looked over the moon himself, brown eyes shining and little laugh lines appearing with the size of his grin.

“I am so,” A brief kiss, “So happy. I love you.” Harry couldn’t help but say again, knowing that whenever he cast a Patronus, this would be the memory – nothing else could compare.

“Let’s go home. You can give me my ring too.” Tony offered, pulling Harry back towards the Saleen. “And I’ve cleared all my work for the night. I’m all yours.”

Harry would blame the romantic proposal later for his reply. “And I’m yours.”

No one ever said Harry couldn’t be romantic too.

 

 

 

Harry glowed.

Tony watched over Harry as he slept, sheets pooling around the smaller man’s waist and dark hair in utter disarray. His skin really did glow, luminescent in the early morning light, and when Tony squinted just right he thought he could almost see the magic curling gently around them.

Harry shifted a little, almost moving into the stretch that he started most days with like the cat that he was at times, showing he was close to waking.

Tony moved forward to pull Harry into a loose embrace, dropping his chin on the other’s head, and smiling as Harry brought his hands up to hold Tony’s. The two shining gold bands glinted, and Tony hugged his _fiancé_ closer.

“Tony.” Harry murmured, still half asleep and adourably snuggly.

Tony rubbed a thumb against Harry’s ring, ridiculously pleased to be something of his marking Harry even when he was wearing nothing else. “Yes, Kitty cat?”

“I’m hungry.” The wizard rather predictably stated. His metabolism was such that he was always hungry when he woke up in the morning. Magic took a lot of energy apparently. “Can we get breakfast?”

“Mm-hm.” Tony breathed in reply into Harry’s bed hair. “What did you have in mind? Anything you want.”

Tony could hear the smile in Harry’s reply. “I should agree to marry you more often if you’re going to be this accommodating.”

Tony’s grin turned victorious as hearing the words come from Harry. They were going to get _married_. Harry was _his_. “Baby, I’ll give you anything you ever ask for.” Tony assured, rolling Harry over despite his grumbled protest and planting a kiss on his forehead.

Harry’s green eyes were soft in the mornings, to match his languid body, but they could still sparkle with mischief. “Donuts.”

Tony felt his forehead crease in confusion. “Huh?” was his elegant reply, trying to connect donuts to the visions of five-star breakfast restaurants he’d had in his mind.

Harry’s grin was fond. “I want donuts for breakfast. And bad coffee.”

Tony was startled into laughter. “Sweetness, I adore you.” He leaned down for another kiss only to suddenly loose his balance, face planting into the pillow where Harry’s head had been just the second before.

Harry’s bright and carefree laughter carried easily from the ensuite as Tony sat back up with a huff. “Oh, Baby, are you gonna pay for that.”

 

 

 

Despite the shower taking longer than usual, Tony still managed to get them out of the house and on the way to the closest Randy’s in reasonable time. He even managed to fit the finished Mark VI in the backseat of the his only four seater car, and then only because the Audi sedan was a convertible.

They arrived quickly, but that was not anything out of the ordinary. Tony generally drove fast, and Harry was a terrible passenger when it came to egging on the driver.

The store wasn’t actually open just yet when they arrived, but Tony decided to be belligerent, knocking on the door and offering the poor woman who answered all the cash he had on him to let them have a case of donuts and two coffees half and hour early.

The woman turned out to have a sharp eye, adding in a ‘Congratulations!’ donut right in the centre of the box and eyeing Harry’s ring with a small smile.

Tony then promised himself that he would pay off the woman’s house or something, because she didn’t bat an eye when Tony insisted he and Harry eat their donuts inside the giant donut, Tony picking up Harry while in the suit and flying into the sign.

“This is surprisingly comfortable for a giant advertisement. Clean too.” Harry offered as he selected his first donut – chocolate glazing. Harry was sitting cross legged, leaning against one of Tony’s suit encased legs, while the other hung over the edge.

“Good view.” Tony agreed, trying to carefully pick up a cinnamon ring with little success. “JARVIS, make a note. Improve fine motor control – I want to be able to pick up food.”

“ _Very good Sir. I have added it to the list between ‘Improve the respiratory systems for self-containment’ and ‘Add stealth flaps because it will look cool’._ ” JARVIS sassed from the suit’s speaker.

Before Tony could provide his own sarcastic reply, he found his mouth filled with a slightly suit crushed donut. “There you go.” Harry offered, liking the cinnamon off his own fingers before taking another sip of the black coffee.

Tony managed to catch the half of the foodstuff he couldn’t fit into his mouth, somehow not squishing it further between two metal fingers. “Rude.” He tried to get out around his mouthful.

“Hypocrite.” Harry replied, smirking back. Then, “I think that SHIELD guy has finally decided to step in.”

Tony froze for a half second before continuing as though nothing had changed, taking a sip of the coffee that he hadn’t put down in case he couldn’t pick it up again. “What terrible timing. We’re trying to have celebratory donuts here.”

Now that Harry had mentioned it, there was now a suspicious number of black SUVs pulling into the neighbourhood. It looked like they probably still had a minute or two to themselves.

“How you wanna play it?” Tony asked, carefully lifting his remaining cinnamon goodness up to finish it off. No need to waste good donuts.

“Hmm.” Harry hummed his thinking noise as he finished his second donut (classic glazed). “I think that we might as well get it over with.”

Harry and Tony had discussed in detail what they though SHIELD’s play was. With access to their files, and adding in the Director’s strange visit right after the ‘I am Iron Man’ press conference, it was easy enough to make the connection to the Avenger’s Initiative. But they were only interested in _Tony_. Harry was barely a footnote in the file, noted as a bodyguard slash friend slash potential room mate, but no one of note.

While Tony was okay with SHIELD knowing very little about Harry, they were both perfectly aware that they really did work better together, so if Tony was going to be an ‘Avenger’ then Harry would also have to become one by default.

And when it came down to it, providing SHIELD with just a touch more knowledge would be in their best interest. They had both seen the Widow’s interim comments on Tony – arrogant and unpredictable, unsuitable for a team. Not as smart as everyone said he was. It would be easier in the long run of they showed SHIELD that they were actually not so easily manipulated nor as unassuming. Plus, Tony was _so_ looking forward to seeing Widow’s face when she realised that they had been on to her since the start.

They would prove that they were not pawns in a game – not that Harry would let either of them ever be that again.

“So you’ll show a little hocus pocus, maybe a name drop? And we’ll mention seeing Hawkeye at that inquest. Should be enough to make them a little more cautious at least.”

Harry wasn’t able to completely hide his excitement – Tony may have been a bad influence in that Harry seemed to now get a little bit of a kick from showing off. It probably didn’t help that Tony encouraged it at every turn.

This would be a risky play, giving away information that could come back to bite them later, but the pair of them were staring to get to the point where they would enjoy a little risk. Harry didn’t really need to hide everything now that the rest of his people were safely away from the mundane world, just the potentially immortal part. And Tony could stretch his Iron legs a bit more, because he honesty enjoyed being Iron Man and saving people and blowing things up. He was also famous enough and well connected enough that SHIELD couldn’t yet afford to get rid of him.

SHIELD would be using them, but they would be using SHIELD in return.

“Gentlemen! I’m gonna have to ask you to exit the donut.” The Director of SHIELD called up to them. “I need a private word with Mr Stark.”

Tony felt the anticipation build, Harry smiling a little half smile that spelt trouble for everyone who wasn’t them.

“Now see,” Tony began, letting Harry take the two coffees, while he picked up the donut box. “That might be a bit of a problem.” The moment held before Harry disappeared with a muffled crack, reappearing at the base of the donut in the same second, unruffled and still holding the coffees. Tony followed him down, before releasing one hand from the suit, taking the box with the now free hand, and stepping completely clear of the suit as it unfolded around him. The suit then reformed, JARVIS easily slipping it into sentry mode at their backs.

“Harry and I are kind of a package deal, really. Master and Commander, Han Solo and Chewbacca – Bonnie and Clyde?” he added at the end, turning to Harry for his opinion and being greeted by the same little smirk as before.

Fury was standing a little too still to be casual, though beyond that he was showing remarkable composure for someone who had just been completely blindsided. The agents hiding in plain sight around them were not all as careful – at least two had their mouths open.

Fury’s gaze stayed focussed on Harry now, calculating. “I don’t think you introduced yourself last time. Who are you exactly?”

It was as though it were scripted. Harry’s eyes hardened as the Director’s unfriendly tone, and Tony felt a hot shiver go down his spine. “Lord Hadrian Potter-Black, Baron to Her Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth the Second.” Then, with a calculating glint, “Also once known as Harry Potter.” And then to top it off, Harry added in a lovely, smug voice, “And soon to be Harry Stark, actually.”

The look of surprise on Fury’s face was forever going to be Tony’s favourite memory of the man. He’d obviously never heard of Harry Potter before, but the title and subsequent declaration that he was taking Tony’s name was enough for him.

Someone _had_ heard of Harry in his other capacity however, as the sound of barely muffled spluttering suggesting someone in the vicinity had done a rather spectacular spit-take when they had heard ‘Harry Potter’.

 “Maybe we should take this inside. I’m sure Lorraine wouldn’t mind opening a bit later than usual if we provide some reimbursement.” Tony decided, already guiding Harry forward with a hand on his lower back – maybe only a touch too low for polite company. Eh, whatever.

Harry and Tony ended up leading the way, so Harry had first pick of their table. He chose a corner booth, making Tony slide in first. The seat meant that their backs were to the wall and Harry could see the entire room at any one time.

Director Fury looked perfectly comfortable on the outside, but his conversation with – “Hey look, it’s Agent Coulson!” Tony crowed – showed he was just an excellent actor, as expected.

And Tony, because he was just feeling like that kind of asshole this morning, probably made it worse. As the two men walked over, Tony asked, “Will the Widow be joining us? It might be polite of her to introduce herself, seeing as she’s been swanning around my Company for the past month.”

Harry huffed out his amusement behind his coffee cup, mouth curling into a grin.

Fury was actively frowning now, looking all together exasperated with the situation. For someone who dealt in information, not having enough of it must be irksome. He slid into the booth first, but Coulson didn’t immediately follow.

“Lord Potter-Black.” The Agent demurred, slipping into an easy bow. “This is an unexpected pleasure.”

Tony’s eyebrows climbed up his forehead, glancing quickly at Fury who looked just slightly more smug than he had seconds before. Tony added a tally to his metal score; Fury one, Tony three.

Harry though – he looked as though this occurred every day of his life. It was an interesting insight as to what the wizard’s life may have looked like before he met Tony.

“Agent Coulson.” Harry’s gaze turned shrewd. “I believe I may have known your grandmother.”

“Yes, she mentioned you often.” Agent Agent assured. Tony was sure he wasn’t the only one to grasp the subtext that Coulson’s grandmother had been a fan. “She told my mother and I of how you were particularly unprejudiced, even towards Squibs.” The figurative light bulb went off in Tony’s head – That was how the other man was connected to Harry’s other world.

Harry’s smile became a touch more genuine. “Please, join us.”

It was all very proper and Tony was reminded of his Mother’s social gatherings where the aim of the game appeared to be to insult everyone else as many times as possible without anyone noticing, except Harry was too nice for that. Probably.

Silence threatened to descend, so as per usual Tony decided to intervene. “I’m pretty sure I know what this is all about. Let me just cut in before we get into it, because I am not, actually, dying.”

“Really? Because you’ve been very busy, making your PA your CEO, letting your friend fly away with your suit. Proposing to a man no one has ever heard of.” The last was added by Fury in a slightly darker tone of voice, one that promised retribution to whoever has missed that piece of information.

Again, another dig at SHIELD. “Hey now, I think it’s perfectly reasonable I’ve proposed to my partner of eight years. And I _gave_ Rhodey the Mark II to get the Army off my back. Their faces when they realise no one except Rhodey can turn it on…”

Fury ignored him. “Your actions are not those of a man in control.”

“On the contrary.” Harry cut in gently, letting Tony settle a hand on his upper leg with no fuss. “Tony’s actions show that he has been in total control. He saw your agent at the inquest last month, did you know?” Coulson was the one to frown this time.

“We had to draw you out somehow. I think you’re just _irritated_ that you’ve been operating under the incorrect assumption that you were the one holding all the cards.” Harry delivered his assessment mildly. Fury was _not_ impressed.

The tension built for a moment before suddenly relaxing. Tony watched in fascination as Fury mentally recalibrated, seeming to realise how close he was to miss-stepping. A good trait to have as the head of a spy agency.

“So you have been aware of our interest, and are aware of who Agent Romanoff is.” Back to Tony. “Plus you’ve solved your palladium issue. That makes SHIELD’s presence here rather unnecessary then, doesn’t it.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Harry disagreed, dropping his free hand to join Tony’s on his thigh. “I’d say we’ve all learnt some valuable lessons here.”

“Hmm.” Fury grunted, and shock-horror, his mouth twitched upwards for a half second as though he were about to smile. Coulson looked rather content as well, all things considered.

“Then you won’t have any objections if we were to pull you both in, if a situation were to call for it, in the future?” Despite the vaguely friendly tone, it was impossible to forget that it was a room full of predators. It sent a new thrill up through Tony’s chest to realise that despite everything, _Harry_ was still the most dangerous person in the room.

And yet, here Harry was, turning slightly towards Tony so that he could take the lead. “Yeah, it might be nice to stretch our legs a little, if we were ever needed.” Tony replied. “As long as you get the whole ‘package deal’ thing. I was serious about that.”

“Yes, I can see that.” Fury offered, gaze shrewd but overall countenance a touch more relaxed now that everyone was on the same page and getting along.

“If I may,” Coulson began, much better at projecting bland calmness than Fury was, “We would prefer to leave Agent Romanoff in position a little longer, particularly with the threat of Ivan Vanko.” A pause, checking to see if they were as in the loop as they claimed. Tony couldn’t hep rising to the challenge, Harry’s thumb circling carefully over the back of his hand unfaltering.

“We’ve been keeping an eye on him. Figures Hammer would take it all too far.” Tony could help adding on with a mutter. “Given their partiality for audiences, we were tipping they would push for Hammer’s Expo slot tonight. Seeing as we’re civilians, I don’t believe we’re in a position to step in until they make a move first.”

Bringing up the civilian card did the trick. Fury’s shoulders let go of some of the tension he’d been holding, and Coulson’s eyes gentled some. Harry had fleetingly mentioned at some point that SHIELD might be a bit nervous due to the amount of pull Tony had in the world. He was ‘friends’ with a great many people and countries though his work, and had the ability to dig up dirt on pretty much anyone who used a computer. By throwing in the civilians comment, Tony was noting they weren’t aiming for authority – they were just in it to help people.

SHEILD couldn’t really go up against Tony Stark in a public situation, given they were a spy organisation. By showing they were willing to follow SHIELD’s lead instead of going off on their own, they were more likely to be an asset instead of a threat.

Tony was offering a mutually beneficial solution.

Harry had noticed the change in the spies as well, and was quite pleased by it if the gentle fingernails running softly over the back of Tony’s hand was any indication.

“A reasonable assumption, and we appreciate your position. Agent Romanoff will be well placed to assist, and we can have a team on standby for evacuation if you are willing to take the lead in neutralising threats as required.” Coulson offered, the first real step in cooperation. “We are also not currently in a position to act without evidence, given our requirement for _discretion_.”

“Thank you.” Harry agreed. “We would appreciate the assistance.”

Tony felt Harry’s contentment settle around them like a soft blanket, happy with how the meeting had finished despite the prickly start.

Tony felt a grin pulling up the corner of his mouth. It seemed like this might actually work.

 

 

 

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last Chapter!
> 
> As I've previously mentioned, it is the ultimate aim to follow this through Avengers. However, it took me three years to write the first one of these, and 12 months to finish this one. I expect it will be at least 6 months before you see anything more from me (and even then, no guarantee). 
> 
> Thanks to everyone who has read and enjoyed, with particular thanks to those who have commented - I love reading your comments, even though often it's while I'm at work and should perhaps be doing other things. 
> 
> And with that, enjoy!

Despite the amicable ending to the meeting with SHIELD, Harry could feel his magic grow more and more agitated as the day progressed. He’d never really had to watch and wait the way they were with Hammer and Vanko – almost always, Harry would be made aware of a threat and have to deal with it immediately.

Tony at least had the suit to keep his hands busy. That, and he’d spent a good hour updating Pepper, because secret organisation or not, Pepper was brilliant and they would need her aware when everything went down.

Harry was trying (rather unsuccessfully) to meditate when everything eventually kicked off with a phone call.

Vanko sounded smug as he goaded Tony, threatening in his cleverness. JARVIS was tracing the call to confirm the man’s whereabouts at HammerTech, but the call cut off before the AI could narrow the search results.

Tony pulled him close after the call ended, kissing him firmly. His dark eyes were lit with excitement, carefully banked behind the drive to protect. Harry’s magic bubbled in response as it fed off the adrenaline of his fiancé, a smile growing to match Tony’s.

“Race you to the expo?” Tony challenged, smile sharpening in preparation of a fight. The difference between this situation and going up against Stane was startling – the time Tony had been given to prepare meant he was at his best, and having the support of SHIELD meant there would be someone there to help evacuate people as required. They had the ability to go all out if they needed.

Harry snorted lightly in answer to Tony’s question. “I’ll even give you a head start.” He offered, restless and _ready_.

Tony moved away to get into the suit, giving Harry to opportunity to call Pepper. Just because he was giving Tony a head start didn’t mean he wasn’t going to beat him there.

 

 

 

Natasha had been briefed by Coulson as to the change in assignment only minutes after the meeting between her Handler, Fury, Stark and Stark’s partner, having been delegated to waiting in the car when things had not progressed as anticipated.

At first she’d been _angry_ , a slow burning low in her stomach as she realised Stark had been playing her just as she had been attempting to play him. Natasha had been trained out of accepting her first emotional responses to situations however, and quickly realised that most of her anger was linked to a sense of shame that someone had blindsided her with what appeared to be ease.

It had quickly become apparent as Coulson explained however, that SHIELD had simply been operating without enough intel.

Hadrian Potter-Black hadn’t even been on SHIELD’s radar. Their awareness of the secular group of meta-humans termed ‘Witches and Wizards’ had always been limited, but given their apparent desire for privacy and their recent withdrawal from the world in general, their impact had been written off as immaterial at best. No one had been informed that one of their potentially most powerful members had elected to remain, at least no one outside the British Royal Family (SHIELD had confirmation of Potter-Black’s Lordship, but beyond acknowledging his existence, no one was saying anything of any substance).

Even Natasha had written the man off at SI, ignoring the slight prickling up the back of her neck warning of something off. To her detriment in the long run, it would appear.

Her orders had subsequently changed, turning from watch and report to potentially assist.

Given how this was going however, she wasn’t sure her assistance was really needed at all.

Hammer had just taken to the stage, attempting to show off his new _advances_ and preparing to milk the Mark II Iron Man armour for all it was worth, when Pepper’s phone had rung shrilly.

Natasha honestly liked Pepper. She was no nonsense; the literal definition of Hell in high heels when someone got in her way. Her reactions to unexpected situations was also something to admire.

“Hammer has done _what?_ ” The woman hissed to the person on the other end of the phone, back straightening and triggering Natasha to hover her hand over one of her batons. Casting a quick glance at the monitor they had in their viewing area confirmed the man in question was still showboating, trying unsuccessfully to build tension before his machines moved to the stage.

“It’s just me and Miss Rushman.” Pepper was confirming, frown lines tightening around her eyes. “Yes, there’s some room to my right?” she continued, had that was about all the warning Natasha had to steel herself against whatever was about to happen.

With a barely there displacement of air, Potter-Black suddenly _appeared_. To the right of Pepper, per her response on the phone.

Natasha froze. It was that or strike out, and she wasn’t sure that would be a wise decision to make. Pepper jumped but didn’t gasp or scream, instead responding with a strangled “Harry! You could have _warned_ me!”, revealing the man was indeed Stark’s new fiancé.

“Sorry Pepper, we were in a bit of a hurry.” The man was apologising in a lilting accent that confirmed his heritage, eyes flicking to Natasha where they paused for a half second assessingly.

The moment seemed to stretch as two people who knew exactly how dangerous they could be considered each other, breaking when Potter-Black’s lips quirked upwards in a ghost of a smile.

Natasha would never know what had granted her the acceptance the man bestowed.

“We?” Pepper confirmed, looking to their view of the stage which was now crowded by drones in time to see Stark land and give the crowd a wave.

“This is why you didn’t want us in the crowd.” Pepper fretted. “What about everyone else?”

Potter-Black’s mouth was pulled into a grim line as he took in the stage, moving into fluid action towards the side of the stage from where they were secreted away.

Pepper followed without seeming to question it, Natasha close behind mindful of her mission here. The crowd was loud out of the little sound proof control room, but it gave them a view from the side of the stage across the group of drones.

Just in time to see them all become armed, and to aim at Stark.

The Air Force drones and the Mark II armour powered up, following Stark out through the roof, but that still left the ground suits. The crowd was screaming now, but Natasha knew SHIELD was in there acting as crowd control.

Potter-Black seemed focussed, but ultimately unconcerned. “Pepper, please go and take control of Hammer. Natasha and I will go and deal with the real cause of this.” Pepper once more moved into action without questioning, reacting to the commanding voice Potter-Black freely wielded.

As Pepper’s heels clattered hurriedly into the distance, as a long thin stick suddenly appeared in Potter-Black’s hand. “Agent Romanoff.” He began, piercing eyes on her once again. She felt her back tense up as her posture straightened with the address. “If you could watch my back for a moment while I disable these, before we go and find Mr Vanko?”

Natasha felt herself nod more than thought about it, turning to watch behind as well as in front as she would when backing up Clint. So she got to watch as Potter-Black lit up in a very soft green glow, before the stick (was that a magic _wand?_ ) followed suit.

Whatever happened to the drones was lost on Natasha. One moment they were moving forward, the next they were buzzing with sparks before halting.

More than 10 drones. In a single moment. What on earth had SHIELD gotten her into?

 

 

 

Given the immediate threat to people’s lives, Harry hadn’t hesitated to use his magic in front of the Agent. She was silent and watchful, gaze sharp, and Harry knew that one wrong move would see her react unfavourably. In an attempt to offset this, he offered an explanation where he otherwise wouldn’t.

“I’ve just overloaded them. I’m able to use the reactor energy within each suit, frying the electrics.”

In fact, Harry had taken great happiness in taking out the palladium reactors in the suits with extreme prejudice, using the Elder Wand to focus on the multiple reactor sources, rather than taking them out one by one.

Now would come the real problem however. From what he could gather, Vanko was controlling the suits remotely at HammerTech. JARVIS had provided an updated position before Harry had left the house, but appearing and taking the man out would not negate the control he had over the drones, and more importantly, James in the Mark II. For that, Harry needed someone with some form of computer experience that extended past Google – Agent Romanoff was that person.

And there lay the heart of the issue. Harry was going to apparate, and he wanted to take Agent Romanoff with him.

Harry had refused as of yet to apparate Tony, much to the genius’ dismay. Harry was wholly unwilling to risk it with the arc reactor in place – The state of electronics after the transport method was hit and miss at best. It was also extremely uncomfortable to side-along apparate. Moving yourself was generally fine as you had control, but the person along for the ride got buffeted and stretched by the magic.

“I know where Vanko is. I can get us there _much_ quicker than anything else, but the method is extremely uncomfortable.” He tried, attempting in vain to discern what the woman as thinking. “It’s also not friendly to electronics. Anything you have on you is at risk of overload.”

Finally, the Spy’s eyes narrowed in discontent. “Using the same method you did earlier to appear from nowhere?” Her voice was mild but her hand clenching and unclenching gave her away.

“Yes, exactly like that.”

Just when he thought he’d have to go alone anyway, Agent Romanoff’s shoulders let go minutely and she nodded, eyes bright and shrewd. “I accept.”

Moving quickly, conscious of Tony flying around with James on his tail, he didn’t give her the option to change her mind. “Okay. Take my hand, and deep breath in, in three, two – ”

Harry let the magic take hold, attempting to calm the edges of the magical disturbance to potentially reduce the turbulence. They landed in a half second, Agent Romanoff’s hand tightening to the point of pain around Harry’s but she remained on her feet.

“One. We’re here.”

Another half second where the Agent released the breath she’d taken, before –

“Hey, how did you get in here!?”

Later Harry would look back on the next moments and be completely impressed at the synergy between himself and the Black Widow. As she moved, Harry mirrored her. When she went high, he went low. Where he needed a boost, she executed the perfect lift.

They were through the security and into Vanko’s control room in less than forty seconds, outclassing the hired men with ease.

Unfortunately the man was already gone, but the Widow was quick to move to the controls.

In short order James’ control was restored, and the Agent used the system to connect through to Pepper, only to be waylaid by JARVIS who was now monitoring communications.

JARVIS, ever efficient, quickly provided an update. “ _Control of the Mark II armour has been returned to Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes. They are currently terminating the remaining ‘Hammeroids’, as Sir has taken to calling them. Mr Hammer is currently being held by Mr Hogan, who is with Miss Potts. They are awaiting the New York Police Department’s attendance._ ”

The Agent had paused at the sound of JARVIS, another unexpected thing to add to her no doubt extensive list for the day. Harry was just glad Tony had encouraged JARVIS to make the most of his freedom – communication with Tony would have been particularly difficult in this situation otherwise.

“Okay, thanks JARVIS. I should probably get back to the Expo then, in case Tony needs more help than just James.”

“There’s nothing more I can do here either, particularly if…JARVIS was it? Has control. Will you give me a lift back?” His companion asked, and Harry was struck once again by how well she was reacting to everything.

So much so that he couldn’t help but ask, “Exactly how weird are the things you see at SHIELD that you can take all of this so calmly?”

Agent Romanoff’s answering smile was real, though concerningly sharp.

 

 

 

Tony liked fighting with Rhodey. They moved in a way that was fairly synchronised, managing to take out Vanko in short order. The time he’d had to prepare really helped out, allowing him to make the best use of the extra power his new reactor provided. Vanko was obviously surprised and outmatched, expecting Tony as he’d been that day at the Grand Prix.

The man seemed concerningly alright with the loss though. It took about three seconds the figure out why.

“Ah, man.” He heard Rhodey mutter, summing up the situation perfectly.

“JARVIS?” Tony queried, talking off with Rhodey right on his tail.

“ _SHIELD has evacuated the area Sir. The only people remaining in the detonation radius are Hadrian, Miss Potts, Mr Hogan and Agent Romanoff, who are still waiting in the main pavilion. Connecting you now_.”

A half second before, “ _Tony?_ ” His other half queried, and he had a brief moment to be glad Harry sounded no worse for wear, unlike their last foray together.

“Vanko rigged all the suits to blow if he lost, which _rude_. Time to go.”

There was the sound of cursing in the background. “Harry just disappeared. Wait, he’s back on the main stage!” Pepper exclaimed, and Tony kicked the suit into high gear.

Tony made it back to the main pavilion just in time to see Harry do the opposite of what he’d done with Stane. Instead of causing an explosion, Harry was _containing_ it.

It was the single most awesome thing Tony had ever seen. Harry, standing with his arms outstretched, Elder stick held aloft. Hair blown back off his forehead despite the lack of explosive air movement, eyes reflecting orange and red as the  drones exploded with brutal force. A green force field acted as an impenetrable bubble, and even as he watched pieces of metal shrapnel bounced against it before being swallowed back by fire and colour. There wasn’t even any _heat_ escaping.

Tony moved before he realised, stepping free of the suit to move up behind Harry and put hands on his waist. This close he could see the strain on the smaller man’s face, the concentration this was taking. The explosion was longer than it might have been otherwise, reflecting in on itself again and again, but finally there was no more oxygen to fuel it.

Harry held the shielding for another three seconds before his arms dropped, the man drooping before Tony stabilised him.

“Easy. Easy Baby, we’re alright. It’s over now.” Tony crooned into Harry’s ear, loosening his hands just enough that the other man could spin around in his arms to face him.

Harry was looking his face over, searching for something before breathing out a sigh of relief and pressing his face to Tony’s neck.

“You didn’t get hurt this time.” He heard, muffled though it was by Harry’s position. Tony felt a fleeting smile move across his face. “Neither did you. Though how’d you know you could contain the explosion?”

Harry hummed, slumping more comfortably into Tony’s hold and he could hear the strain the serious magic had put on him. “Had to. Should have fried them well enough the first time to make the explosives safe, and I wasn’t sure if everyone else was clear. Plus I had to keep Pepper and Happy safe. And Agent Romanoff. I think I like her, actually.”

Someone clearing their throat caught Tony’s attention before he could reply to that frankly ridiculous comment.

“Why do I keep coming in on the two of you looking like you’re five seconds from having life affirming sex?” Rhodey asked somewhat mournfully, like he couldn’t believe this was his life. His face was a touch forced though, playing at calm and collected. “Though the whole green force field thing – That was definitely new.”

“It was epic, is what it was.” Happy added in, and Tony realised that he was holding Harry in a tight hug, meters away from an awesome crater in the stage, surrounded by his three closest friends and a deadly SHIELD agent/spy/assassin.

Tony was suddenly in agreement with Rhodey. “How _is_ this my life.” Tony muttered into Harry’s hair, who shook with supressed laughter before pulling away.

“Everyone alright?” Harry enquired, ever the compassionate one in their relationship. Tony had been too busy wishing for some privacy to realise he should have asked that question.

Pepper answered with a smug smile. “Yes, thank you Harry. That was _magical_.”

Harry laughed in response, matching smirks on Tony’s, and interestingly Romanoff’s faces. “Yes, it rather was, wasn’t it?”

Pepper’s smile grew teeth at the confirmation of her guess. The perplexed faces of both Happy and Rhodey just topped it all off.

 

 

 

Tony had waited a total of three hours after the confirmation of Happy’s ability to marry them before begging Harry for them to get married _right now_.

Harry found it endearing and sweet rather than anything else. Given that they only needed James, Pepper and Happy, there was really no point in waiting. And to be perfectly honest, Harry didn’t _want_ to wait any longer. He’d known Tony was it for him since before Afghanistan, and they didn’t need to waste time planning a big wedding ceremony.

So, five hours after Happy had been confirmed as an officiant, Tony and Harry were officially married.

 Harry had magicked up two white suits for them for the sake of tradition, and had brought some flowers to life to drape across a few surfaces in the lounge. He’d chosen a spot in front of the window, providing a sunny view of the ocean. Tony was responsible for getting Dummy, You and Butterfingers upstairs. Each little AI had a suit bow around a strut, chirping and bopping various arms as they celebrated their temporary freedom and their Father’s marriage. JARVIS kept them in line, every part the older brother.

Rhodey was in full Military Uniform, Pepper in a green dress that was too closely matched to Harry’s eyes to be anything but a special order she must have prepared in advance. Happy ended up being the only one to cry, barely getting out the classic line, “You may now kiss your husband.”

Harry had been smiling so widely, his mouth was sore by the end of it. Tony had not once taken his eyes off his fiancé, and then husband, eyes crinkling around the corners and glowing warmly with what looked like a permanent smile.

“Love you.” Harry murmured as they pulled apart after their kiss, forehead still pressed against Tony’s. “I’ll love you for all eternity.” Tony replied softly, like a promise.

 

 

 

They headed to England for what was going to be their version of a honeymoon.

Fury had confirmed their potential for the Avengers program once Agent Romanoff had supplied her recommendation, curiously unbiased considering the circumstances. In fact, there was an air of grudgingly impressed acceptance around the review of them both.

Fury had even been magnanimous enough to comply with Tony’s rather ridiculous request to have Senator Stern provide honours to him and James.

They’d left straight from the award ceremony, boarding Tony’s jet at Washington airport, and let JARVIS pilot them to Heathrow.

A black cab ride later had them standing outside 12 Grimmauld Place.

“Seriously, there _is no twelve_. It’s not there. Look, eleven, thirteen. Maybe a foot of space between them. It’s _cheating_ that magic is going to mess with physics like this.” Tony was bemoaning, hands flapping around as he became more affronted by the insult to science that was magic. Harry hadn’t stopped grinning since they’d arrived, charmed by Tony’s reaction. Because no matter how he complained, Harry knew he didn’t mean it – the man had yet to stop reacting to magic like a small child every time Harry used it.

Brows drawn down in a frown and nose crinkled, his husband turned towards him. “So how do I get in?”

Harry, still grinning, grabbed Tony’s hand and pulled him in so Harry could speak into his ear.

“ _Hadrian Stark owns Number 12 Grimmauld Place_.”

Tony’s eyes were bright and heated when Harry pulled back, as they always were when Harry called himself a Stark, but was predictably distracted as the house came into view.

“ _Cheating_.” The other man hissed again, before taking the lead and dragging Harry forward with their still joined hands.

The purpose of the trip was two-fold. Not only would Tony get to see the house protected by magic, including the books on strange things like Transfiguration and Potions, but Harry was planning on catching an open portal hoping to get word to Ron and Hermione.

For some reason, this time of year was busy for transferring muggleborns. Though their numbers were thinning by now, it wouldn’t drop off to less than a handful per year until around eleven years after the separation, simply due to the way magic presented in children. Magic would still pop up in second and third generation children on occasion, but it would become rarer and rarer till it stopped entirely.

It meant though, that Harry could get a letter to a witch or wizard when a portal opened. And the next time after that, he might be able to introduce his two closest friends to his husband.

Giving his letter away turned out to be easy. Portal locations didn’t change – their fixed locations were generally in places where magic had already existed, like the entrance to Saint Mungos, or the Ministry. There were others around the world, but portals were operated by locals. If he wanted to catch Ron or Hermione, local would be the best way.

They’d been only a half block away when Harry had felt the tingle of foreign magic to the alley beside the once Leaky Cauldron. They’d been heading in that direction anyway, Tony keen to see Harry’s old haunts despite the fact they were now no more magic than anything else in this world.

It was strange how Tony had to walk around in sunglasses and a cap so as not to be recognised, only for the situation to be instantly reversed when the two witches noticed them at the end of the alley.

They were cautions in the first few seconds, Harry drawing his wand to show who he was and in case they chose to obliviate now and ask questions later. But then –

“You’re Harry Potter! The older has whispered shrilly, hand comically tugging at the arm of the woman next to her. Tony sniggering at Harry’s back hadn’t helped matters.

The two witches had been thrilled when Harry had asked for the favour, the paper envelope taken with borderline reverence, and promises to take it directly to Mr or Mrs Weasley-Granger.

Harry had requested a time, day and location. It all hinged on Ron and Hermione being able to get approval to come through temporarily. Harry just had to hope that Hermione still had enough pull in the Ministry to make it happen.

The next three days were spent with Harry leading Tony around like a tourist. Buckingham Palace, Harry’s favourite library, Big Ben, the Eye, a brief visit to the little café Harry had worked at before moving in with Tony.

The nights were a little more private, as expected during a honeymoon, though Tony had brought some of his more portable work with him as well as a suit in case he wanted to tinker.

The day of the meeting dawned with typical London drizzle, but it had cleared up by the time they left Grimmauld Place. Harry had chosen the old entrance to the London Quidditch Pitch, now a leafy park only half an hour or so walk from the house.

They walked close, holding hands. He was nervous, but so was Tony. This was as close to meeting the parents as they would ever get.

They were 10 minutes early, Harry leading them to a bench where he would be able to see any magical activity, and Tony settling with his arm warm around Harry.

“I hope we get to see them.” Harry couldn’t help but murmur into the quiet air. The park was fairly quite in their corner, people drawn to the children’s playground equipment across the way and giving them some privacy.

Tony nosed into Harry’s hair with a hum. “We could always stay a few days longer if we need to. I could drop into the London branch of SI.” Tony, ever tactile, had his forehead pressed against the side of Harry’s head, and as the man breathed out a puff of warm air it sent shivers down Harry’s spine, causing him to pull away squirming. “Tony! You know that tickles!”

Tony just huffed a laugh, refusing to let him escape by tightening the arm around his shoulders. The struggle continues for a few seconds, before movement in the corner of his eye caused Harry to freeze, Tony following suit.

Hermione was smiling widely, eyes crinkling the way they only every did when she was particularly happy. Ron was standing at her side, hands in his pockets but looking much more comfortable in his skin that he’d ever managed as a teen, grin in place. And there, holding one of Hermione’s hands each, were undoubtably the next generation of Weasley-Grangers – A girl and a younger boy, both with bright red Weasley hair.

He barely noticed that he’d moved, hand slipping into Tony’s as they stood.

“Rose, Hugo. This is our best friend, Harry.” Hermione spoke, smile unwavering. The girl, Rose, who couldn’t be more than eight was also smiling. Everything about her was her mother except her hair. Hugo looked two or three years younger and was shy, managing to stand half behind Hermione and pressed against Ron’s leg at the same time.

“Hi there.” He managed to finally get out, tearing his eyes away from the two kids to look greedily take in Ron and Hermione again. They had aged, as people generally did he supposed. But they seemed happy.

Tony squeezed his hand carefully, and Harry finally remembered he had an introduction of his own.

“This is Tony. My husband.”

Then they were moving, Hermione pulling him in for a tight hug while Ron shook Tony’s hand. They swapped, Hermione hugging Tony just as firmly, and Ron pulling Harry in for a quick one-armed embrace.

“You’re lucky it’s just us.” Ron offered as he let go. Hermione was introducing the kids to Tony, who looked a little flustered. That wasn’t all that unusual when the genius met anyone under the age of sixteen.

“The whole family wanted to come, but it was hard enough getting permission for four people, let alone all twenty-three of us.”

Harry couldn’t stop looking at them all, noticing the changes in his friend’s faces and stances. “I’m really glad you managed though. I wasn’t sure you’d be able to.”

Hermione’s smile went a bit wry. “Please. I only had to threaten three people.”

Harry was startled into laughter, magic buoyed and light. He could feel the four other magicals, their cores bright and shining, as well as Tony with the reactor. The man was doing an admirable job of talking to Rose and Hugo, who both seemed a little too awed to talk to Harry. He could only image what people had been telling them.

“So,” Ron began, reaching over to ruffle Harry’s hair, which he deftly dodged. “Married, huh?”

“Harry Stark.” Hermione added in, easily connecting Tony to the man they’d met in Amsterdam all those years ago. “It has a nice ring to it.”

At Ron’s raised eyebrow, Harry explained. “We met Tony at a conference, around ten years ago.”

“Now this I have to hear.”

Harry looked up to see Tony watching, smiling softly. Harry spun the ring on his finger in response.

“It’s kind of a long story.”

 

 

 

Later that evening Harry and Tony returned to Grimmauld Place for their last night in the UK. They lay in bed facing each other with legs twinned.

“They looked so much older.” His kitten murmured, one hand tucked under his head and the other tracing patterns on the arc reactor. “I didn’t think there would be that much change.”

Tony hummed in response, knowing there wasn’t really anything he could say. Even he’d seen the differences between Harry and his two school friends. He understood too – he’d started noticing new lines on Pepper’s face, and just the barest hint of grey in Rhodey’s hair from the stress of his job.

His husband had the little crinkle between his eyes that signalled the beginning of a frown. “I know it’s a little while off, but what happens when people start noticing?”

Again, this was not a new thought to Tony. How often had he become lost in thought in the ‘shop, thinking what would happen as time went on?

“We’ve got a while yet. And SHIELD is probably on our side, now. The Widow was particularly flattering in your report.”

Harry rolled his eyes, shoving Tony playfully. The serious atmosphere cleared slightly as he’d intended, though it hadn’t even been a lie. Apparently, Harry and the Black Widow were on a first name basis now.

Harry let the matter drop, breathing out a low sigh and tucking his head under Tony’s chin. Tony wrapped him up further, safe in his arms.

Harry letting the topic drop meant he knew Tony had been thinking about it, but didn’t want to say anything yet. It meant Harry trusted him and any plans he might have.

It was awe inspiring, and it was terrifying. Harry, who was saddled with a title like the Master of Death, trusted _Tony_ enough to keep them safe.

Tony would be doing his damnedest to make sure that faith was not misplaced. The Merchant to Harry’s Master.

There had been an afterthought in their SHIELD assessments, something he wasn’t sure Harry had noticed, and wasn’t sure anyone bar Agent Romanoff had given much thought to. A parting line – “ _Though strong together, the partnership between Stark and Potter-Black represents a potential risk. If one were to fall, the other could represent an Earth altering threat.”_

Though true, Tony thought it went a little further than that. They were dangerous together just as they would be apart, because Tony would do just about _anything_ to keep Harry safe, to prove Harry’s trust wasn’t misplaced. And Harry had already proved the same, several times over.

Love could destroy civilisations. Tony just hoped it never came to that.

 

 

 

 


End file.
